Re: THEORY: And wrote:

And wrote:
>> In this languages it is misleading *not* to describe the vowels
>> in oral and nasal
>
>But the point is whether to treat a-oral and a-nasal as basic
>phonological elements, or whether to treat |a| and |nasal| as
>basic elements.
So, how do we make this decision?

>> In Dutch I make a difference between 'pot' and 'bot'
>> Do I use different phonemes ('p' vs. 'b') or do I use
>> different versions of one sounds, i.e. a bilabial stop?
>> I think the first. Or is my thought the result of education?
>
>The question is whether the elements out of which phonological
>structures are composed are /b/ and /p/ or (say) |labial-stop|
>and |voice|. For a language like Dutch, the latter does not
>lead to much simplification level, at least at a superficial
>level of analysis.
Is simplification the only argument to divide phonemic elements up
into smaller parts?
So, say, Dutch lacks the voiced velar stop. Does this mean we
can analyse Dutch as:
  voiceless stops: p t k
   and nasal versions of voiceless stops ('nasalisation?) m n N
versus
  voiced stops: b d

It is simpler, but somehow I think it is tricky.
Rob

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