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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Corpora colleagues, where do you advise me to
publish the article which abstract I enclose in this message? Please, may I
ask you to be so kind as to comment on this abstract? Looking forward to hearing
from you soon to my correct address <A
href="mailto:yutamb@mail.ru">yutamb@mail.ru</A> Remain yours most sincerely and
cordially Yuri Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Some universal trends in the distribution of labial
consonants in world languages<BR>Yuri Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk Pedagog.
University <A href="mailto:yutamb@mail.ru">yutamb@mail.ru</A>
<BR> The aim of this research is to establish the exact limits, in
which the labial consonants function. That is, the frequency of occurrence in
different language families is studied. It allows us to find out the universal
trends in the distribution of labial consonants in world languages. Most all of
world languages use labial consonants. The problem is to find out the overall
natural foundation why some languages do not use as many labial consonants in
their speech chains as the others. There arises a question if the use of labial
consonants in the speech chain of any language is determined by some linguistic
factors. Or the occurrence of labial consonants is not determined by the system
of a particular language. That is, it is determined by the work of the
articulation apparatus of man. It also can be that the articulation habits
resist the particular system of a language. It may, very well, be, that the
system of a language requires more labials in its speech chain, but it is
resisted by the work of the articulation tract. The investigation of the use of
labial consonants may enlighten the limits, in which the labial consonants may
occur. It may explain the force, which makes the human language use labials (cf.
Tambovtsev, 2003). To my mind, there exists a universal potential to use
labials, though in every concrete language this potential embodies itself to a
different degree, because of the press of the phonological system of this or
that languages. Therefore, this potential expresses itself differently in
different language branches, subgroups, groups, families and super-families. One
can find the exact figures on the use of labial consonants elsewhere
(Tambovtsev, 2001-a; 2001-b; 2001-c).<BR> We computed the
transcribed texts in 167 world languages to see the tendencies of the occurrence
of the occurrence of labial consonants. Below we provide the mean frequencies of
labials in such language families as Indo-European (Indic - 10.30%; Iranic -
13.38%; Slavonic - 13.65%; Germanic - 11.42%; Romanic - 11.08%), Finno-Ugric
(11.22%), Samoyedic (11.46%), Turkic (8.71%), Mongolic (7.28%),
Tungus-Manchurian (10.12%), Paleo-Asiatic (7.93%), Caucasian (10.45%),
Austronesian (9.11%), Australian (11.18%) and American Indian (10.52%). The data
show the general tendencies of the use of labials in world languages. It is
vivid that Mongolic and Paleo-Asiatic languages underexploit the use of labials.
In fact, the lowest concentration of labial consonants we found in the speech
chain of the Itelmen language (6.43%), spoken on the Kamchatka peninsula while
the greatest concentration of labials is in Swahili (16.61% of all the phonemes
in the speech chain). So, one can see that the use of labials may be depress
really much, i.e. by about 3 times.<BR>References.<BR>Tambovtsev, 2001-a -
Tambovtsev, Yuri. Kompendium osnovnyh statisticheskih harakteristik
funktsionirovanija soglasnyh fonem v zvukovoj tsepochke anglijskogo, nemetskogo,
frantsuzkogo i drugih indoevpopejskih jazykov. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirskij
klassicheskij institut, 2001. - 130 pages. <BR>Tambovtsev, 2001-b - Tambovtsev,
Yuri. Funktsionorovanie soglasnyh fonem v zvukovoj tsepochke
uralo-altajskih jazykov. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirskij klassicheskij institut,
2001. - 132 pages. <BR>Tambovtsev, 2001-c - Tambovtsev, Yuri. Nekotorye
teoreticheskie polozhenija tipologii uporjadochennosti fonem v zvukovoj
tsepochke jazyka i kompendium statisticheskih harakteristik osnovnyh grupp
soglasnyh fonem. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirskij klassicheskij institut, 2001 - 130
pages.<BR>Tambovtsev, 2003 - Tambovtsev, Yuri. Tipologija
funktsionirovanija fonem v zvukovoj tsepochke indoevpopejskih, peleoaziatskih,
uralo-altajskih i drugih jazykov mira: kompaktnost' podgrupp, grupp, semej i
drugih jazykovyh taksonov. - Novosibirsk: Sibirskij nezavisimyj institut, 2003.
- 143 pages. <BR>Yuri Tambovtsev, Dept of English and Linguistics of Novosibirsk
Pedagog. University, P. O. Box 104, Novosibirsk-123, 630123. Russia. <A
href="mailto:yutamb@mail.ru">yutamb@mail.ru</A> </FONT></DIV>
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