Re: vowel scheme for new language

On Wed, 19 May 1999, dunn patrick w wrote:

> Does this sound like a plausible vowel scheme?
>
> a -- low back
> e -- mid front
> i -- high front
> o -- round low back
> u -- round mid front
If by "plausible" you mean "likely to occur in natural languages",
I would have to say no.  Human languages prefer to have 'balanced'
vowel systems, e.g.:

        i     u
           a

Or:     i     u
           @
           a

Or:     i     u
         e   o
           a

Or:     i/u"         u
            e/o" @  o
                & a

Or something like that.  Your vowel system is suspiciously
lopsided, so that all the vowels run in a straight line
from low/back to high/front:

                i
                 e/u
                     a/o

I would think there would be pressure for one of those
vowels to develop into a high back vowel, or something...

Matt.