Re: Tit'xka (Pretty Long Post)

Steg Belsky wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Dec 1998 17:49:49 -0600 Eric Christopherson <eric@...>
> writes:
> >So you were SERIOUS about wolf-sized tarantulas? :) It looks really
> >neat and harsh-sounding, but I also wondered about the vowels. Does
> >anyone know if the system of /a/ /i/ /I/ /@/ is anatomically
> >plausible?
>
> >I was just wondering the other day, "are there any languages without
> >either /o/ or /u/, or without either /e/ or /i/?"
>
> Well, i seem to remember a language which died out a few years ago (but
> was heavily documented by scientists, linguists, etc. and its last
> speaker) which had many many many phonemicly different consonants, and
> only one vowel - i think it was /a/ .  If i remember correctly, it was
> from the Caucasus region.  And people a few hundred years ago (when it
> was spoken by an entire ethnic group) had described it as "the sound of
> marbles hitting the floor".
If I remember correctly, the language had two phonemic vowels.  I did som=
e
personal research on Caucasian languages a while back, and I seem to reme=
mber
that there are two major language families there, one with a relatively n=
ormal
number of vowels and glottalized consonants, and another whose languages
had very few, three or in one case two. Can't remember it exactly;  I'll =
have to
look it up again.

I don't think there's any known language with only _one_ phonemic vowel.
(But I think you're right insofar as, if there were one, the vowel it'd h=
ave would
be /a/, IMO).

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Tom Wier <twier@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"S=F4=F0 is gecy=FEed / =FE=E6t mihtig God manna
cynes / w=EAold w=EEde-ferh=F0."
 _Beowulf_, ll. 700-702
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