Re: Ygyde is easier to learn than any other language

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007, simple_language@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote (excerpt):

> If the auxlang is used as an auxiliary language, we can estimate the
> ease of pronunciation from natural languages. If a phoneme (sound) is
> rare in natural languages, it is probably difficult to pronounce.

I don't think this follows.  Consider the sounds rendered in ASCII
SAMPA notation as /T/ and /D/ (i.e., the linguodental fricatives in the
English words 'think' and 'this').  They are not common in the world's
languages, to the best of my knowledge, but just ask any native English
speaker how easy they are.  After all, /D/ occurs in the most frequent
single word in the language!  Ease or difficulty of pronunciation
probably depends in large measure on training during childhood
acquisition of language, not on some abstract notion of difficulty or
frequency of occurrence.

-- 
Paul Bartlett