Re: New Language - Altsag Venchet

John Cowan wrote:
>Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > I mean, there are for
> > instance no voiceless labials, even though based on analogy with the
> > dentals/alveolars and the velars one'd expect *p and *f to turn up.
>
>Arabic has /b/ and /f/ but no /p/, hence the famous Bombay/Pompeii
>confusion.
IIRC, it lacks /g/ too.

Still, the lack of symmetry is weirder than the existance thereof, generally
speaking. Surely, when you see a "hole" in a phonemic inventory, you've got
every right to wonder if there's any known particular reason for it.

> > You might've also expected *dz to turn up.
>
>German has /ts/ but not /dz/.
All German affricates are voiceless (with some foreignesque exceptions like
in "Dschungel"), whereas the Altsag Venchet supplies a voiced counterpart to
"ch" but not to "ts". The later arrangement seems a bit more remarkable to
me.

> > Is "q" [q]? If so, it seems a bit lonely as the only uvular. If not, is
>it
> > perhaps a glottal stop [?]? That'd be less "weird" symmetry-wise (seeing
> > that voiced uvular stops are impossible), but the orthography would then
>be
> > pretty original, and you'd better call particular attention that
>convention.
>
>"q" is used for final glottal stop in transcribing Wu (Shanghainese); it is
>the stunted mutant relic of former -p, -t, and -k.
I guess "original" was bad choice of word. "Unusual" might've been better.


                                              Andreas

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