Re: Paucity of Phonemes (was Re: Thagojian phonology...

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Kristian Jensen wrote:
> > Consonants: p t k ? b g s h
> > Vowels: i a o
> Quite odd!  But the source I read distinctly said 10 phonemes.  Could it
> be that /?/ is of questionable phonemic status, e.g., it automatically
> occurs between vowels, or something like that?  Of course, that source
> coulda been wrong, or this might not be the language referred to.
I heard of an amazon lang too, though that had only nine phonemes, because
women had /s/ as an allophone of something else. Men still had 10 phonemes.
This might be the language you're thinking of. Though I don't know what
language it was so I guess this post doesn't really add anything.

And what about Pirahã? Doesn't it have like only 10 phonemes as well?

Daniel