Re: Common Orcish Article (Long) - was Re: tolkien?

Quoting Amanda Babcock <ababcock@...>:

> On Sun, Dec 14, 2003 at 11:21:23AM +0100, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > Anadewistic question: is there any known human language that lacks
> bilabials?
>
> You mean totally?  For near-totally, we have Mohawk, which has /w/ but
> no /p/, /b/, /f/, /v/, or /m/.
Meant totally indeed. Still, even learning that something close to it exists
is interesting.

Nitpick: using /f/ and /v/ suggests the sounds in question are normally
pronounced as labiodentals, not bilabials. (Yargish, as it happens, does have
a pair of labiodental fricatives; unlike the normal situation in human speech,
they are typically pronounced with the lower teeth against the upper lip.)

                                                         Andreas

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