Re: Phonemes


"David Wright Sr." <dwrightsr@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote...

> "John Atkinson" <johnacko@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >> >David Wright Sr. wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> What language has the largest known number of phonemes and how
many
> >> >> does it have?
> >> >>
> >> >> Has any work ever been done to determine a theoretical maximum?
>
> (snip)
>
> > You can see that a language which combined clicks with
Caucasian-type
> > secondary articulations would end up with maybe a thousand or two
> > different phonemes. Even this would be far below the "theoretical
> > maximum".
>
> Thank you. I remember very little of my training in phonology, so I
> understood very little, but I appreciate it.
>
> Do you think that all of those variations would be sufficiently
different
> to a hearer under normal speech conditions that they really would be
able
> to serve as phonemes? I am not saying that they couldn't. I am just
> interested in knowing.

Well, it's not hard to imagine finding someone bilingual in !Xóõ and
Ubykh (though I don't like your chances -- there are 4200 speakers of
!Xóõ in Botswana and Numibia, but the last fully competent speaker of
Ubykh, Tevfik Esen, of Haci Osman, died in Istanbul in October 1992).
Such a bilingual could distinguish all the phonemes of both languages
under "normal speech conditions". And, some of the features used to
distinguish phonemes in these two languages are very different (clicks
versus secondary articulations), both in how they're produced and what
they sound like. So, the speaker (and hearer) aren't about to confuse a
click with bilabial onset and pharyngalised unvoiced aspirated uvular
release with one with lateral onset and labialised voiced nasalised
velar release, are they?

So, the answer to your question seems to be: Yes, I think they would.

Physiologically, at any rate. Neurologically, who knows whether the
wiring is complex enough to handle so many?

John.



.

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