<html>
<body>
<font size=3>At 10:58 AM 4/2/2003 -0600, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Long long ago I was taught that it
was<br>
roughly 70; in recent years I've seen claims that it's roughly 150. I
keep<br>
seeing different totals in different sources, and there's a lot of
space<br>
between 70 and 150. (It makes me wonder if it's analogous to
deciding "how<br>
many languages exist" and showing a range from 5000 to 10,000 based
on how<br>
one defines "language" and "dialect.") And -- if 150
is near the mark -- is<br>
that a rare extreme?</blockquote><br>
The definitive place to go for the answer is Sounds of the World's
Languages, Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson, 1994 (I believe--I'm not in
my Linguistics office at the moment). My memory is that 150 is way
over the top, but it is the case that !Xoo has a lot of clicks, as Claire
Bowen mentioned. The San languages do certainly seem to be at the
extreme end of the continuum, but languages without clicks that are
large, such as Kabardian (over forty consonants and more than five
vowels) and Thompson (Ntlakapmxw) with about the same number seem to be
at the top end otherwise, so totals around fifty are pretty close to the
top without clicks. But check SOWL for the final answer.<br><br>
Geoff</font></body>
<br>
<div>Geoffrey S. Nathan <geoffnathan@wayne.edu></div>
<div>Faculty Liaison, Computing and Information Technology,</div>
<div>Wayne State University</div>
<br>
<div>Linguistics Program</div>
<div>(snailmail)</div>
<div>Department of English</div>
<div>Wayne State University</div>
<div>Detroit, MI, 48202</div>
<br>
<div>Phone Numbers</div>
<div>Computing and Information Technology: (313) 577-1259</div>
Linguistics (English): (313) 577-8621
</html>