Re: Newbie says hi

Mat McVeagh wrote:
> I believe Hawaiian has around the fewest consonants.
Actually, Rotokas has the fewest.  Hawaiian has 8 consonants, while
Rotokas has 6.  However, Hawaiian does hold the record for fewest legal
syllables.

My Uatakassi started out, in part, as an experiment in minimal phonology
(as a reaction to my previous lang which had something like 50
consonants and a grand total of something like 20 vowels, after thinks
like nasalization and length are taken into account, and consonant
clusters from hell), but has grown steadily more complex.  In its
contemporary form, it has 3 vowels plus phonemic length, 2 diphthongs
(with long allophones phonetically conditioned), and arguably 16
consonants, with (C)(l,w,y)V(f,s,v,z,n,l,*) syllable structure (*
indicates gemination), so, still fairly simple.

> we need to learn from the example of Schleyer who created Volapük without an
> R, replacing all R's with L's, because the Chinese don't have an R - only to
> find that the Chinese DO have an R :).
And yet still gave it front rounded vowels, which are a problem for
speakers of most langs, including major ones like English and Spanish.
:-)

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