Re: laterals (was: Pharingials, /l/ vs. /r/ in Southeast Asia)

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