Re: Universally Pronounceable Phonology

On 2007-09-18 15:02:47 -0400, "X. Rayburn" <none@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:

> You will probably think I am joking here but I am serious. In many
> parts of the world modern dentistry has not become available yet and
> people lose a lot of their teeth as they become elderly. Thus any
> phonemes dependent on teeth are questionably universal.

It's not limited to elderly third-worlders. I'm a forty-something 
American who has lost most of his upper teeth due to poverty and a 
Coca-Cola addiction. I can no longer pronounce English correctly 
without a denture in place. However, I *can* pronounce Japanese 
correctly without the denture, which makes me admire the design of 
Japanese even more. (I believe Japanese started out as a conlang.)