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Re: USAGE: minimum number of vowels?

From:Sandy GONG <minus273@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 28, 2004, 10:29
On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 01:58:42PM -0400, Mark J. Reed wrote:
> I know some languages have only three vowel sounds . . . well, > let me be more precise. Some languages recognize only three > vowel qualities, although they might extend the system to six > phonemes via length contrasts. These three vowels are > (almost) always (analzyed as) /a/, /i/, /u/. Most languages > seem to have a triangular system with those three vowels at the > vertices, differing mainly in how many stops in between are > recognized as significant. > > 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"? > > -Marcos
Yes See Wikipedia. A language in MidAsia has 2 vowels, and one dialect of which has only 1. Tend to exist <----------- a i u -----------> Tend to lose An 'a' normally always exists in a language.