Re: Introductions and a question about consonants

Peter Clark scripsit:

> 3. One of the consonants may be dropped. This might also effect the following
> vowel; for instance, if "think" were to undergo such a process, the /N/
> (ASCII IPA for "ng") might be dropped, but the /I/ remain nasalized. Thus,
> you would end up with two contrastive words: "thick" and "think" would be
> identical, except that the /I/ in "think" would be nasalized. Tada! New
> phoneme. Currently, nasalized vowels are not contrasted in English, but
> through such a process they could become so.
Well, in fact I do pronounce "think" as [TI~k], so this is not the whole
story.  For [I~] to become a new phoneme, it would have to contrast not
just with plain [I] but with [In].

> We like to talk. A lot. Incessantly. At all hours.
Which is why the conlang list was held until I exercised my Strange Powers
this morning and freed it.  But it would be nice if someone who got a
"Your message has been held" let me know, because if that happens then
I can free the list pretty much right away (unless I am asleep or such).

--
There are three kinds of people in the world:   John Cowan
those who can count,                            http://www.reutershealth.com
and those who can't.                            jcowan@reutershealth.com

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