Re: Phonology: How to classify /l/ and /r/

Muke Tever wrote:
> From: "Fredrik Ekman" <ekman@...>
>
>>>Because they are two different phonemes to you. There are probably
>>>sounds that sound alike to you which I find extremely different.
>>
>>Yes, well, I understand that. What I meant is that there has to be a
>>reason why the particular sounds [r] and [l] seem to be relatively
>>frequently merged into one phoneme rather than, say, [r] and [f]. Or [l]
>>and [j]. I understand that this has to do with the relationships between
>>different sounds, but I just do not understand what the relationship
>>between [r] and [l] is.
>
>
> Both are -syllabic +consonantal +approximant +sonorant +contin-artic
> +contin-acous +del-rel +vox +coronal +anterior.
Okay, I understand syllabic, consonantal, approximant, sonorant, and
vox, but what do the others mean?

> But [4] is +tap, while [l] is +lateral.  Not much actual difference...

[4] is a tap and [r] is a trill, but what about [r\]?

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