Re: USAGE: minimum number of vowels?

From:    Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>
> Mark J. Reed jazdI:
> > My question: do any languages recognize *fewer* than three vowel
> > qualities - two or even just one?    If so, which vowel(s) tend(s)
> > to be "missing"?
>
> My Linguistic Dictionary (Moscow, 1990) says that some North Caucasian
> langs (Abkhaz, Abazin etc.) have only two vowel *phonemes*: low /a/ and
> high /@/, but from what I saw in text samples, those are realized as a
> good bunch of vowels (5 and more) conditioned by the quality of
> surrounding consonants: palatalization, labialization, glottalization
> etc.
Actually, it might even be more enticing than just that.  There are
some analyses out there that the schwa vowel phoneme exists only for
morpheme juncture, and thus is itself predictable.  This leaves the
language just one vowel phoneme, and thus none, since there is
no phonological contrast of any kind to define the phoneme by.  (I myself
am not sure how much credence to give these analyses, at least in
psycholinguistic terms.) There are also, as you say, a largish number
of phonetic vowels, around 15 or so in Abkhaz.

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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