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Rhotics, was Re: Chinese Dialect Question

From:Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...>
Date:Friday, October 3, 2003, 0:22
In a message dated 10/2/2003 12:53:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
gwalla@DESPAMMED.COM writes:


>JS Bangs wrote: >> Mark J. Reed sikyal: >> >> Furthermore, most languages have exactly one rhotic
>Is this a universal, or are there some languages with more than one?
According to RMW Dixon in _Australian Languages_: "Almost all [Australian] languages have two rhotics (or r-sounds), one articulated relatively forward in the mouth and pronounced as a trill or tap or flap (written 'rr') and the other articulated further back, generally pronounced as a semi-retroflex continuant, but sometimes as a tap (written 'r'). Some [Australian] languages have just one rhotic and a number have three. . ." Doug