Re: USAGE: minimum number of vowels?

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.