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Re: Random |mormon| :-) (was: my proposals for a philosophical

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Sunday, January 26, 2003, 17:10
Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> I meant, of course, that Tairezazh can't have non-initial /m/.
Arrgh, and I thought "can't have non-final /m/" was such a k3wl konstraint, er, constraint. AFAIK there are no natlangs that put more restrictions on initial consonants than on final ones. A challenge!
> Non-initial [m] occurs, but only as an allophone of /n/ occuring before > labial consonants. Eg _tshenp_ [tSEmp] "forest".
Then perhaps it is better to say that there is only one final nasal, which is given the same place of articulation as the following consonant, or [n] if there is none. This is what happens in Italian, although for historical reasons both "n" and "m" are used in spelling. But the nasal in "inferno", e.g., gets labiodental articulation. Does this work across morpheme/word boundaries, as it does in Italian? -- Yes, chili in the eye is bad, but so is your John Cowan ear. However, I would suggest you wash your jcowan@reutershealth.com hands thoroughly before going to the toilet. http://www.reutershealth.com --gadicath http://www.ccil.org/~cowan