Goblin phonology

In hopes of getting into the Lord of the Rings movies here I have been
accumulating material for a goblin language.  Not that the language was
meant for a Tolkienesque milieu, just that it would be interesting to
create a language from getting an opportunity to be an orc. Then the disc
did awfull things and I nearly lost the information.  What I couldn't
recover I rewrote, so maybe if I discuss it it won't get so lost this
time.

The phonology is based on what is known of Black Speech or Orkish:

ii    uu        b/p  d   t      k/g
    u            f   th s/z sh kh/gh  h
   i             m   n          (n)
      oo             l              r
      o
  a
      aa

That seems to be right according to what I was trying to construct though
I could be wrong.  Short u and i have become centred.  Short a is a
mid-low front vowel and long a is a low back vowel (I just like those
sounds). E is not used in native goblin words and is avoided in borrowings
for the most part. Unvoiced stops are aspirated and t is articulated
further back (alveolar I think).  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?

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

    Jesus is working out his salvation; he is about halfway there.