Re: Cliks
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, March 21, 2003, 16:44 |
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Andreas Johansson scripsit:
> I don't understand why independent innovation should be so unlikely? Surely
> there's plenty of cases where unrelated languages have acquired more-or-less
> exotic sounds independently?
The mystery of clicks is that nobody can figure out how they could have resulted
from a reasonable sound-change in some other language. Implosives, e.g.,
are exotic enough, but essentially they are just "prevoiced voiced" sounds,
and they tend to arise when there is danger that a distinction between
voiced sounds and something else will be lost. Sindhi implosives, e.g.
arise out of breathy-voiced sounds.
--
"May the hair on your toes never fall out!" John Cowan
--Thorin Oakenshield (to Bilbo) jcowan@reutershealth.com
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