Re: Goblin phonology

Classical Greek lost its [y] early and its [w] late.  The [y] turned
into [z] and other weird things (zug- = "yoke", cf. Latin "jugum").
The [w] was still around, not when Homer wrote, but when the formulaic
phrases out of which his poetry is composed were created.  This is
noticeable because there are many Homeric lines which do not actually
scan as they are written, but they would scan if you inserted the lost
"digamma" ("F", which represented [w]) into words such as "wanax"
(king), "woinon" (wine), and so on, which are "anax," "oinon" in
historically attested Greek.

But there *were* [y]-like and [w]-like diphthong offglides.

So yes, there is a precedent for a glideless language, and a very
famous one at that. :)

Ed Heil
.. edheil@postmark.net
.... http://edheil.iwarp.com

andrew wrote:
> What's interested me is no semi-vowels w
> or y except as offglides (ai and au), or if no w then no v either.  Would
> such omissions be normal in a natural language?  Any suggestions or
> examples?
>