Re: the sound [a]

Quoting "Mark P. Line" <mark@...>:

> Andreas Johansson said:
> > Quoting "Mark P. Line" <mark@...>:
> >
> >> Andreas Johansson said:
> >> > Quoting Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>:
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language lists a language Amuesha
> >> >> (Andean-Equatorial family) with a vowel system /e a o/.
> >> >
> >> > I'd be itching to analyze that as /i a u/.
> >>
> >>
> >> Why?
> >
> > Because that would be a much less typologically marked set.
>
> That's what I was afraid of.
>
> I believe that the received wisdom on what is typologically unmarked (or
> less marked) is irretrievably skewed to the point of uselessness because
> people have a tendency to, shall we say, *re-analyze* their observations
> in terms of what they already think the typologically less marked
> realization might be.
>
> Of *course* /i a u/ will seem less marked if we force ourselves to look
> for a way to analyze every 3-vowel system into this scheme.
Well, I do not have access to the typological data to tell if such skewing has
been going on. I tend to go with the received wisdom when I am unable to judge
for myself.

Of course, [i a u] is about the maximally contrastive three-vowel set, which
suggests that three-vowel systems should gravitate to it. But since maximization
of constrastiveness is another typological observation, I guess you won't accept
that either.

                                                        Andreas