Good Natured Ribbing (1) [was Re: Refining early Basque criteria]

[Stefan Georg]

[ Moderator's note:
  Further discussions should move to private e-mail.  I believe that the topic
  has moved beyond interest for this list.
  --rma ]

>[PR]
>All well and good. But if we assume --- as we need to for this argument to
>cohere --- that the FIRST syllable produced by the child should be the one
>which the mother assigns to herself, then "*very* early" is just not early
>enough.

What the language community decides to conventionalise with whatever
meaning is not dependent on any absolute "first" here.

>[SG]
>>At this stage, the child is certainly *not* "using" "language"; it's
>>babbling.
>>Babbling-research has established that, in phonetic terms, the sounds
>>produced
>>by infants vary greatly in frequency: at the top of the list are /m/ and /b/
>>alike, with the same frequency, followed by, in this order, /p/, /d/, /h/,
>>/n/, /t/, /g/, /k/, /j/, /w/, /s/, aso. (Locke, J.L.:  Phonological
>>Acquisition and Change, NY: AP 1983).

>[PR]
>Where is the glottal stop in this list?

Don't know. Probably quite late.

>[PR]
>Frankly, you are not too bad at childish babbling yourself! (:-O)

Well, I was a child, before I was a linguist, at least so I'm told.

>[SG]
>>This is not brushing by. The word is "linguistics" (;-).

>[PR]
>Excuse. The phrase is "Ralf-Stefan's understanding of the application of
>linguistic principles to this problem".

These expressions are coextensive.

>[PR]
>Just when do you believe *?ama was "conventionalized"?

6478 B.C., 13th April, late afternoon.

(which is the kind of answer your question deserves, of course)

As ever,

St.G.

Dr. Stefan Georg
Heerstraße 7
D-53111 Bonn
FRG
Tel./Fax +49-228-691332