Re: your opinion

>how many vowels is too many?
>i just realized that Vityng distinguishes 20 vowels
>http://wiki.frath.net/Vityng
There's no definit cutoff point, but the two that seem the most improbable
to me are:
- the [i\] that only appears by epenthesis in final clusters - you seem to
be avoiding shwa, but I'd think [6] or [U] or [I] were more likely - or, if
you don't want new phonemic vowels, syllabic resonants
- the [OI] that only appears as an allophone of [2y] before retroflexes —
while other front vowels retain their rounding; so the existing [oU] might
be more likely here

[i y u] and [I Y U] only contrasting in *unstressed* syllables is also a bit
surprizing, but IMO it adds some nice flavor (and might signal the
beginnings of a stress system change?)

John Vertical