Re: Tonal Languages taken to extremes

Quoting Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > In other words, you didn't intend to allow syllables only consisting
> of a
> > vowel! That'd be slightly remarkable, wouldn't it?
>
> There are languages which require onsets.  In fact, I think Arabic is
> an example.  I know that Arabic words can't *begin* with a vowel, things
> like al- are actually pronounced with an initial glottal stop.
I'm pretty sure you can add German to that list, which does the same
thing:  it adds a glottal stop word-initially (<ahnen> "to sense" [?a:n@n]),
and I believe also word-internally (<beobachten> "to observe" [b@?obaxt@n]).

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>

"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III