LL-L "Language varieties" 2011.04.01 (03) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 01 April 2011 - Volume 02
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Language varieties



Roger wrote:

Who can translate this language:

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/38/Je-Kinderen/article/detail/1243856/2011/03/31/Wat-hebben-deze-tweelingen-elkaar-te-zeggen.dhtml



And Paul in response:

I've heard that lots of twins develop their own "twinnish", but very few
maintain it much past infancy. Odd really, you'd think they's find it useful
to have a "secret language" in later life.



Of course you can simply dismiss the “speech” as a mixture of babble and
mimicked intonation that the infants perpetuate by constantly mimicking each
other.



Nevertheless, they make the distinct impression of understanding each other.



What I find most interesting is that, apart from intonation, their “speech”
consists of various compounds using a single type of syllable: [da]
(sometimes possibly [ta], non-aspirated).



My hypothesis is that this is the “fundamental syllable.” It is possibly the
easiest one to pronounce and occurs in virtually all languages.



Labial [b] (or [p]) and velar [g] (or [k]) require more effort than does
their (dento)alveolar stop equivalent, as do nasal and fricative equivalents
of all of the above.



Similarly, [a] is one of the easiest vowels to pronounce, certainly when
speaking loudly. (Schwa [ə] would be next but unlikely so in loud speech.)



Most phonologists agree that CV (consonant-vowel) is the fundamental
syllable structure.



Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

Seattle, USA



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