Nik Taylor wrote:
>Japanese has a pretty symmetrical *phonemic* inventory:
>
>
...
>With some degree of asymmetry in *distribution* in native roots:
>
...
>/r/ never occurs word-initially
>
>
I was going to question that but Roger did a better job. Though I don't
know if they're native or not... If it's actually true, any reason for
it? (Reasons being basically known sound changes, so the reason for no
/nh/ is because /p/ didn't become /h/ there.)
...
>/j/ does not occur before front vowels (hardly an unusual
> restriction), cannot occur after /w/ (again, not unusual
> at all)
>
>
For the latter, is there any reason? It seems odd to me... not that I
know much about these things.
--
Tristan.