Re: fewest sounds?
| From: | Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, November 28, 2005, 21:03 |
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On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:43:06 -0500, Reilly Schlaier
<schlaier@...> wrote:
> what are the fewest sounds in any language i was wondering how
> many sounds are required to make a language work
Rotokas wins, with IIRC 10 or 11 phonemes. Depending on the phonemicity of
tones in Pirahã (it reportedly has 9), it might tie that record. I *think*
they're only pragmatic, but the documents I've seen are a bit hazy on that
count. Depending on how you count long vowels in Hawaiian (i.e. some
consider /a:/ to be /aa/), I think it's close to the record.
Technically, you only need two phonemes for a workable language, but I
can't see that occuring naturally.
Paul
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