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Re: Just two questions

From:Pavel Iosad <edricson@...>
Date:Sunday, January 19, 2003, 22:58
Hello,

> I made up a new lang on the train yesterday, and there are > two points I had questions. > First I thought to simply leave out the voice [k] (turned to > [g] some time ago). What do you think, could it work, when > there are consonant clusters like -gt- or -gp- where it's > normal to pronounce g more like [k]????
The latter is perfectly normal. Cf. Common Slavic where 'gt' and 'kt' merged in an unvoiced sound. In Modern Russian, in /gt/ the first phone is unvoiced, but also turned into a fricative (so we have [xt]). Polish, AFAIR, realizes [gt] as [kt]. However, languages tend to lose *un*voiced consonants in the labial row, and *voiced* ones in the velar. So it is perfectly normal to have a language with a 'b' but without a 'p' rather than vice versa (that's one of the typological arguments against the traditional PIE reconstruction).
> Balazs Sudar <conlang@...>
Pavel -- Pavel Iosad pavel_iosad@mail.ru Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas --Scottish proverb