Re: Further Questions on Phonology

Andy Canivet <cathode_ray00@...> writes:

> I was wondering if it was reasonable to have a language that makes the
> distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants - but does not include
> any voiced fricatives (eg. d, t, b, p, g, k, but only f, s, sh, etc with no
> v, z, or zh).
Spanish does that. Phonemically, at least. Phonetically, the
voiced stops turn into voiced fricatives after a vowel
('badén' = [ba'DEn], 'diablo' ['djaBlo], etc.). I understand
that the old language distinguished voice in fricatives, but
the distinction was lost (incidentally, that's why Mexico
is writing with an 'x' when it should be written with a 'j'
-- 'x' was /S/ and 'j' was /Z/; when the voice distinction
was lost, it was the same to use either one, and though
'j' was chosen in most cases, some words retained the 'x').


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/ego/pdf/ng/index.html