Re: Natlang Help: Do you know of a language that...

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Roger Mills <romilly@E...> wrote:
> David Peterson wrote:
>
>   DP I have an idea for a possible paper topic for school, but I
need to look at languages other than English.  What I'm looking for
are languages that:
>
>   (1) Allow coda voiced velar consonants (e.g., [g] and [N]), and
>   (2) Make a distinction between tense and lax non-low vowels
(so, /e/ vs. /E/, /i/ vs. /I/, /u/ vs. /U/, /o/ vs. /O/).
>
>   Do you know of any natlangs that do this?
If you're interested in length (still, I feel, a significant feature
in British English), Siamese offers examples with final /N/
(velar).  Final -i:N is very rare (I can't think of any examples)
and -u:N is disproportionately rare.  (There is su:N_14 'tall',
which comes from Proto-Tai.  I'm not sure how regular the vowel
correspondences are, though).  Li gives examples of Siamese -u:- in
closed syllables corresponding to short vowels in more distantly
related Tai languages, but the examples that should have -u:k or -
u:N have -uN.  In native Siamese words, /O/ is rare - it is
normally /O:/ - but final -ON is quite common.  Historically, it is
irregularly (?) shortened from -O:N, with which it sometimes
contrasts.

On the other hand, the contrast between -aN and -a:N is well
maintained in Siamese, as in the common place name
element /ba:N/ 'district or village by a waterway'.

Richard.

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