Re: Japanese phonemes (was Re: The Monovocalic PIE Myth (wasGermans have no /w/, ...))

Tristan Mc Leay wrote:
> >/j/ does not occur before front vowels (hardly an unusual
> >    restriction), cannot occur after /w/ (again, not unusual
> >    at all)
> >
> >
> For the latter, is there any reason? It seems odd to me... not that I
> know much about these things.
For /wj/?  Both are glides, sequences of two glides are very rare in
world languages.  For that matter, sequences of consonants with equal
sonority are banned in a great many languages.  Tho some languages will
allow clusters like /pt/ or /sf/ or /lr/, it's pretty rare.

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