Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Phonological questions, bunch 2

From:John Vertical <johnvertical@...>
Date:Saturday, October 8, 2005, 20:43
Not the last bunch you'll be seeing, I'm sure... :)

So how (un)likely is it for languages to contrast homorganic voiced
fricatives and approximants? The only example I know is Dutch with /v/ vs.
/v\/. Are there any other instances, like /K\/ <> /l/, /j\/ <> /j/, /G/ <>
/M\/?
Some other, different contrasts whose existence I'd also be interested in
knowing of are /1/ <> /M/ and /S_j/ <> /s\/.

An entirely different question which has also bothered me lately concerns
long-term results of sound change: where do complex stop systems come from?
Is allophonical development from other stops and stop clusters the only
option, or is creation of new stop phonemes from non-stops attested
anywhere?
(And since stops are often lenited into fricatives, would the first choice
imply that over a long time enough, a language's all stops could have
decayed into continuants?)

John Vertical

Reply

Shreyas Sampat <ssampat@...>