Re: Viko Notes

Jim Grossman wrote:


>Writing and sounds:
>2.      If "k" is always pronounced as in "skin," "t" as in "stick," and
"p" as
>"spin," the unwary reader should know that these will sound voiced (like
>/g/, /d/, and /b/) to English speakers at the beginnings of words.
True for some; but as a rule of thumb, it's the usual, and best, way of
teaching English speakers (especially) how to approximate an unaspirated
voiceless stop......
>
>3.      "v" without "f"?   Well, there's no law against that.  It seems a
bit
>odd, but I'll defer
>to linguists' opinions about whether it happens in any natural language.

It is probably rare, but not unattested.  Fijian (one of my Top 10 faves)
has [B] and [D] (written "v, c"), and some dialects have [G] (for standard
"k" [k] IIRC) without voiceless counterparts-- though historically "v, c"
derive from *f and *s resp. and ultimately < merger of *p/b and a whole
bunch of *vd/vl. palatals resp. (while Fij. "s" [s] apparently < *ns).  I
think a few other Melanesian languages also have voiced sounds for these,
too.

(I seem to have deleted the original notice of Viko.  Could we have the URL
again, please?)

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