Re: Lip-plates

SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY wrote:
>
> On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Kristian Jensen wrote:
>
> > Just curious as to how lip plates would affect the
> > phonology of a language. Do cultures with lip-plates
> > have labial sounds at all in their respective languages?
> > There can't be rounded vowels, can there?
>
> Interesting question.  IIRC, some people have claimed that such cultures
> do not ever have labials.  But the Masset Haida use (or at
> least used to use) lip-plates, and they do have labials.  The Haida
> language has  [u] -- I assume that it is rounded, because no description
> I've ever seen says it isn't and that is the kind of thing that would be
> mentioned (I'd think).  Labial consonants are sparse, but they do occur
> and are increasing due to loans.  [p] (unaspirated) definitely occurs, and
> I think [b] and [m] do too.  They also have labialized velars and
> labialized uvulars (contrasting with the unlabialized).  Don't ask me how
> they sound, because I've never heard the language spoken and have a hard
> time imagining it.
If you have MS Encarta, you can hear Haida (among many other languages)
spoken, admittedly not much but a few phrases, but it has an interesting
feel to it.  IIRC there are very few vowels as compared to the number of
consonants.

Nicole