Re: OT: Icelandic help

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...> wrote:
> It strikes me as probable as well that quick languages may lose some of the
> distiction between long and short vowels, and would tend to simplify
> diphthongs. I've had Urianian go through one or two such phases. For example,
> thw vowel shifts in highland Urianian are the same for long and short vowels,
> while in lowland Urianian, long and short vowels are shifted differently.
> This suggests that highland Urianian has lost at least some of the long/short
> distinction before the vowel shifts.
>
> LEF
In fact, Japanese retains vowel-length distinctions from its earliest
days, although it has indeed simplified its diphthongs, e.g. /keu/ >
/kjo:/

Eugene