Re: Nimrina phonology

Henrik Theiling wrote:

> I also like the h/f merger leading to h - v alterations.  I have
> something similar in the current version of the S11 phonology, where f
> precedes rounded vowels and h unrounded ones, and in clusters, it is
> h, f, or v, depending on phonological context.  Hmm, maybe I should
> not throw it away (I think the language does not sound nice, as stated
> before).  Is it also inspired by Japanese (where it is more like h/f
> -- p -- b like 'hito' + 'hito' > 'hitobito')?
Japanese to some extent, but also the history of Spanish, where h < f in
some words (although the written "h" is now silent).

I don't want to borrow too many ideas from one language, but I figure
that some relation between /h/ and /f/ is widespread enough that it
won't necessarily bring to mind Japanese. I already have one idea
borrowed from Korean: /l/ has allophones of [l] and [4], although the
distribution isn't exactly the same as in Korean (initial [l] is
permitted, for instance). "Minnesota" for esample is borrowed as
"Minesóla" [m_jinEsO:4a]!