Re: the sound [a]
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 8:40 |
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Danny Wier <dawiertx@...> writes:
>...
> Now there are some languages that lack /u/, and Japanese is a famous case.
> It has the unrounded counterpart /M/, however. Cree and Obijwe among the
> Algonquian languages,
I wouldn't be surprised if all Algonquian languages have no (phonemic)
/u/. Meskwaki certainly doesn't.
> Navajo and some others in Athabaskan, and various
> other Native American languages also lack /u/. I can't think of any
> languages anywhere that don't have /i/ - unless you count Georgian, which
> lacks /i/ but instead has /I/, so I honestly don't want to count it.
Where did you read that? The Georgian high front vowel is much more
frequently tense than lax in quality, so it makes more sense to say
Georgian lacks /I/ and has /i/.
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637
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