Re: THEORY: Reduction of final consonants

On 8/30/07, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> On 8/30/07, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> > I know absolutely nothing about it, but Mandarin does.  Words
> > can only end in /n/ or /N/ in Mandarin,
>
> "Words" can only end in -n/-N, or syllables?
Both.

> > I'm
> > sure someone on the list can explain how the mother language
> > apparently had several coda consonants, and how most of
> > them went the way of the dodo in Mandarin.
I only know a little, but *-p *-t *-k (which still exist in Cantonese,
for example), have, in general, disappeared rather than turning into
other consonants.

I don't know what effect, if any, they had on vowel or tone.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>