Re: Revised Eastern Vowel Orthography
| From: | Tom Wier <artabanos@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, May 23, 1999, 19:55 |
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Danny Wier wrote:
> FFlores wrote:
>
> >Also, /P/ and /f/ are not very distinct... more or less
> >the same as with /h/ and /x/ (which someone once said that
> >were found contrasting in any natlang).
>
> I can't think of a single natlang example of phonemic distinction of /P/ and
> /f/.
IIRC, the Maori language of New Zealand makes a phonemic
distinction between the two.
> The former isn't that common; it's found in languages like Japanese
> and Uzbek, but the vast majority has the latter only. They are a little
> distinct, if the ear is trained well, so it's theoretically possible to have
> both...
Well, it's not much worse than the acoustic distinction between /T/
and /f/ for most people (non-English speakers, for example) who don't
grow up having to make the distinction. I believe there's a London
dialect (Cockney?) that has leveled out all /T/s in favor of /f/: "both"
is [bof].
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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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