Re: THEORY: clicks

I wrote:
>Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>> > On the contrary.  What possible phonological process could generate
>> > clicks
>> > from any other sound?  We more or less understand how implosives and
>> > ejectives form, but clicks???  The surprising thing is not that some
>> > languages borrow clicks, but that there are any click languages at
>> > all.
>>
>>And how do we explain how they got there in the first place? ;))
>
>This reminds me of reading somewhere that Proto-World must've contained one
>of those Arabic back consonants I can't pronounce (a pharyngeal fric?),
>because it's inconceiveable that it's evolved from anything else. The
>conclusion is obvious; Proto-World had clicks too! (As well as all other
>features whose origin we can't explain.)
The source turns out to be Patrick Ryan's "mildly" speculative
Proto-Language Essays
(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/ProtoLanguage-1.htm). The
relevant section is:

"e. in addition, the existence of a sonant (voiced) pharyngal spirant ¿ is
postulated for the Proto-Language because of its occurrence in some of the
world's languages (notably Afrasian and Caucasian). It is extremely
difficult to imagine another phoneme from which it could have arisen;"

(The sign after "pharyngal spirant" is a Spanish-style up-side-down question
mark.)

                                                Andreas

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