THEORY: Voiceless vowels [was Re: Missing Parts]

Quoting Christopher B Wright <faceloran@...>:

> Philip Newton sekalge:
> >Would that mean a language without vowels?
>
> Yes. Vowels are voiced.
As I said in my previous post, this is not always true.  In some
languages, vowels may be devoiced allophonically.  In Japanese,
this occurs IIRC intervocalically between voiceless obstruents
and word finally.  In the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan family,
voiceless vowels occur word-finally.  I am not aware of any
languages that phonemically contrast these with voiced vowels,
although I wouldn't be shocked if there were some.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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