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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. -- One Word to write them all, John Cowan <jcowan@...> One Access to find them, http://www.reutershealth.com One Excel to count them all, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan And thus to Windows bind them. --Mike Champion