Re: Phonemes

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

> "John Atkinson" <johnacko@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...

> > David W:

> > > 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?
>
> > 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?
> >
> Can you clarify a little more on this? I'm not sure how
physiologically vs.
> neurologically would be different?

"Physiologically": Their mouth, tongue, and vocal chords would have no
trouble producing them, and their ears would have no trouble
distinguishing them.

"Neurologically": Does the language organ in their brains have
sufficient synapses (or whatever) to deal with such a large number of
basic units? I certainly don't know enough about how it works to say --
or even whether the question is answerable at all, or whether it's
well-posed.

John.


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