Re: THEORY: language and the brain [Interesting article]

On Japanese having "r but no l" while other Asian languages have only "l"
my observation (and my impression is that more qualified experts agree) is
that this distinction is largely a matter of the way the languages are
romanized. Listening to Japanese pronounciation the sound romanized
as r is more like l at least in many contexts. Several Asian languages
(including Korean and Japanese)seem not to treat l and r as separate
sounds--for which reason my Korean and Japanese students have great difficulty
distinguishing the spelling use
of r and l in English. Hangul in Korean has one character for the r/l
sound which can create odd results. In transcribing English loanwords they
also use the same character for b and v--I recall seeing from the bus a
Korean shop sign with pink Valentine hearts and a word I mentally
transliterated as "roba roba"--then I realized it was really" love, love."
John Leland

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