The most common sounds (Was: Re: backwards conlanging)

On Mon, Nov 27, 2000 at 10:16:29PM -0500, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
[snip]
> I have a stupid boring /i/ /e/ /a/ /o/ /u/ vowel system, with two
> diphthongs.  I guess I'll have to figure out something more complicated
> that could've simplified down to the 5-vowel system.
[snip]

Hmm, this gets me thinking... I wonder what are the most common sounds
that are found in almost every language? From the few languages that I
know, it seems that the following sounds are most common:

[a]     [i]     [o]     [u]
[ai] (or [aj])  [au]
[j]     [w]
[b]     [d]     [t]     [k]
[h]     [s]
[l]

It seems to me that usually what makes a language's phonetic inventory
unique is the different set of fricatives/approximants/trills employed.
Seems that languages diverge more on those sounds than on the simpler
stops and unrounded vowels.


T

--
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