Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik)
Subject: Re: words without vowels
Message-ID: <librikD81MsA.Eu7@netcom.com>
Organization: Icy Waters Underground, Inc.
References: <3o3k4h$ec@news.nd.edu> <3o6hch$akc@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au> <3o8j1i$dtq@overload.lbl.gov>
Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 07:43:22 GMT
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Sender: librik@netcom14.netcom.com

hughett@wallabee.lbl.gov (Paul Hughett) writes:

>   I am _not_ arguing that non-serious linguistics should be excluded from
>sci.lang, since the question has led to some interesting discussions
>about the fact vowel/consonant is in fact a continuum rather than a binary
>distinction, that graphically vowelless words may be actually pronounced
>with vowels, etc., all of which are useful and interesting facts.  But
>the bottom line is that the question "Are there vowelless words in 
>language X?" can be translated into a precise lingusitic question in
>several different ways and that these different translations have
>different answers.

The "vowelless words" so far listed, even when they didn't contain
vocalic segments at all, were all continuants.  I am told that Bella
Coola, a Salishan language of British Columbia, contains words with
nothing but sequences of stop consonants, which do not become vocalic
or syllabic or get epenthetic vowels inserted.  Can anyone provide
examples and documentation of this claim?

- Dvd Lbrk
librik@cs.Berkeley.edu
