Re: Chinese Dialect Question

Mark J. Reed sikyal:

> On Thu, Oct 02, 2003 at 10:01:09AM -0700, Garth Wallace wrote:
> > JS Bangs wrote:
> > >Mark J. Reed sikyal:
> > >
> > >Furthermore, most languages have exactly one rhotic
>
> To clarify: that was JS who said that, not me.
>
> > Is this a universal, or are there some languages with more than one?
>
> There are languages with more than one.  For instance, /4/ and /r/ are
> distinct in Spanish (c.f. "pero" vs. "perro").
I don't think we can count this as "two kinds of 'r'". The distinction
between [4] and [r] is one of length in Spanish, phonemically /r/ and
/r:/. Their distribution attests to this--like geminates in most
languages, they do not contrast initially or finally. And as a geminate
/r:/ should not be considered a fully distinct phoneme. We do not say that
a language with /k g k: g:/ has four velar stops, do we?

--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"

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