minimal pairs (was: PIE e/o Ablaut)

[proto-language]

Dear Peter and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "petegray" <petegray at btinternet.com>
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 2:27 PM

>> ....  But believe it
>> or not, linguists will still disagree on the phonemic status of sounds
>> and different analyses may result in different numbers of phonemes
>> claimed for a particular language.

[PG]

> Interestingly, this has come up before on the list even with reference to
> English - and in particular, the phonemicity of voiceless /w/ ("where" etc,
> in some dialects) and c-cedilla in words like "hue".

> If you want a minimal pair, I offer:   hue ~ who;  but even this does not
> guarantee phonemic status for the initial sound in "hue".

I think the pair when:wen is minimal for voiceless /w/.

In 'hue', the glide belongs with the vowel, as it does in 'hew'.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
St. Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES: PROTO-LANGUAGE:
http://www.geocities.com/proto-language/ and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/proto-language/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit ek,
at ek hekk, vindga meipi, nftr allar nmu, geiri undapr . . . a ~eim meipi er
mangi veit hvers hann af rstum renn." (Havamal 138)