En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
>
> As I noted, Xhosa isn't Khoi-San: it's a Bantu language that has
> borrowed
> clicks from the Khoi-San languages.
>
Yep, I realised my mistake only after sending the message, and you had already
sent yours so I found it unnecessary to send a correction.
>
> 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? ;))
> As it is, if the Khoi-San had died out, we would be proclaiming that
> clicks
> in ordinary morphemes (that is, excluding kissy noises and horse-talk)
> were a violation of Universal Grammar.
>
True. Just like if it weren't for Malagasy we would proclaim OSV word order to
be against universals ;))) .
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.