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Re: Futurese

From:And Rosta <a-rosta@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 1, 2002, 23:24
Christopher B Wright:
> > And Rosta sekalge: > >It is quite possible for a language to contrast (say) [l] and [r] > >yet for no /l/:/r/ contrast to be reported. For instance, [l] or > >[r] might be a realization of /d/. > > You've lost me with startling ease. Would you please explain the last > sentence, using small words that I'll be sure to understand?
Christophe explained it pretty well. In brief, you might find a language listed in an UPSID-like database as having '/l/' and '/d/' but no '/r/'. Yet on deeper investigation of the language in question it might turn out that /d/ is sometimes pronounced as [r], such that [ara] and [ala] form a minimal (contrastive) pair. As Christophe pointed out, a tap R (IPA inverted small cap J) is a possible realization of the /t/ phoneme in English in many accents, so the tap contrasts with both [l] and approximant R. There are other languages where [d] and [l] are alternate ways of pronouncing the same phoneme (I can't remember which ones, but the omniscients on this list would know). --And.