Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: USAGE: minimum number of vowels?

From:Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 28, 2004, 11:58
French 'verlan' tends to use only one vowel: "eu", or
[9] if you prefer.

Verlan means "l'envers" (reversing the syllables).
Attested vocables sound like :

femme (woman) > meuf
flic (cop) > keuf
fete (party) > teuf
shit (haschish) > teush(i)...


--- "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> 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 >
===== Philippe Caquant "High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail