Re: Underused phonemes

>It occurred to me yesterday that I don't know of any conlangs that have [W]
>as a phoneme. I was wondering what other sounds people might think worthy
>of more exposure.
>
>Pete
As far as POAs are concerned, I haven't seen much linguolabials or
epiglottals around. The same goes for the few natlang-unattested POAs from
the extIPA (dentolabials, labioalveolars, bidentals) but that doesn't really
surprize me. (I recall seeing 1 conlang with some bidentals, which is
probably statistically enuff.)
And I lately thought about the possibility of an extended velopharyngeal
POA. After learning what it *is* in the first place (articulated between the
velum and the pharyngeal wall - ie. "half-nasal"), I was able to produce a
fricative, a tap and a trill with pretty minimal practice. Obviously this
POA doesn't have stops, but anti-stops (= nasalization) instead.

Other extIPA stuff I'd like to see sometimes are consonant difthongs and
nareal fricatives.

As far as "more normal" stuff goes, ATR/RTR, breathy/creaky/lax/etc.
phonation, apical/laminal distinctions, pharyngealization, widespread
palatalization/velarization (a la Russian / Scottic Gaelic), co-articulation
and prenasalization all seem to some extent underrepresented. I don't think
I've either seen anyone use flaps or taps besides /4/ - surprizingly not
even /l\/, let alone other POAs.

I do have phonology sketches to fill most of these holes, tho. For example:
/p_h t_d_h t`_h k_h/ <ph th dh kh>
/p_> t_d_> t`_> k_>/ <pp tt dd kk>
/b_0 d_d_o d`_0 g_0/ (lax plosives) <p t d k>
/m n_F n   n` J N/ (_F = linguolabial) <m nf n nh nj nw>
/  l_F l   l`L L\/ <lf l lh lj lw>
/      r    M\`/ <r rh>
/  T_F s z s` z`x\ $/ (the last two being palatal/velar sibilants) <sf s z
sh zh sj zj>
/      ts) ts)` kx\)/ <c ch x>
/a_a a_q e_a e_q o_a o_q i_a i_q y_a y_q u_a u_q/ (tho probably easier
transcibed as /a A e E o O i I y Y u U/
Also includes widespread consonant harmony, a series of [R ?\]-final
difthongs (phonemically /U A/) and tonal accent.

John Vertical

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