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Re: Velarization

From:John Vertical <johnvertical@...>
Date:Sunday, May 27, 2007, 16:11
>I'm wondering, are there any natural languages that contrast velarized >consonants with anything *but* palatalized consonants? I'm familiar >with Russian, and know that velarization versus palatalization is >relatively common--and now I'm curious about what other things >velarization might contrast with. > >I also know about the English light and dark "l". Is there anything >else? (Preferably more extensive?)
>Katya
Well, there's St'at'imcets, which has velarized /tS S l ?l/: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%27at%27imcets_language And Marshallese, which is a similar system to Irish / Russian, but with labialized series too, and cuppled with a vertical vowel system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshallese_language I also recall passingly reading of a West African language which has velarized labials corresponding to the labiovelars of the rest of Niger-Congo, but I'm not so sure about that. HTH John Vertical