Re: laterals (was: Pharingials, /l/ vs. /r/ in Southeast Asia)
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, February 11, 2004, 3:28 |
Javier BF scripsit:
> >If, on the other hand, they only occur in the affricate
> >[tK], then there's no need to make a special character, *especially* if
> >the "normal" [t] does not occur.
>
> Then it's a flaw of the design principle of
> the IPA alphabet, because that alphabet is used
> not only for phonemic transcriptions, but also
> and very frequently for phonetic transcriptions
> that are meant to tell the reader how a sound
> actually sounds and not just what phoneme it
> belongs to in a certain language.
It would be more accurate to say that IPA *symbols* are only assigned
when there is a phonemic contrast in some language. IPA *diacritics*
can and do make subphonemic distinctions.
--
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