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L O W L A N D S - L - 01 April 2011 - Volume 02<br>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From:
R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
Language varieties</p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Roger wrote:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: navy;">Who can translate this language:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: navy;"><a href="http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/38/Je-Kinderen/article/detail/1243856/2011/03/31/Wat-hebben-deze-tweelingen-elkaar-te-zeggen.dhtml" target="_blank"><span style="color:navy">http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/38/Je-Kinderen/article/detail/1243856/2011/03/31/Wat-hebben-deze-tweelingen-elkaar-te-zeggen.dhtml</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">And Paul in response:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: navy;">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.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Nevertheless, they make the distinct
impression of understanding each other.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">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).</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">My hypothesis is that this is
the “fundamental syllable.” It is possibly the easiest one to pronounce and occurs
in virtually all languages.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">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.)</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Most phonologists agree that
CV (consonant-vowel) is the fundamental syllable structure.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Seattle, USA</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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