r and s

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
"H. M. Hubey" <hubeyh at Montclair.edu> wrote:
 
>Neither Turkic nor Dravidian have words beginning with the liquids.
 
I don't think initial position was mentioned previously (and I
believe the Turkic z ~ r alternations occur everywhere but
initially).
 
As to r-, it is also practically absent from, say, IE and Basque in
the West.  You may have a case for l- (not extremely common in IE or
Basque, but hardly absent), but note the "compensatory" paucity of
initial n- in the West (both in IE and Basque [also Kartvelian?]).
 
 
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam