Re: [tied] Wine

French (or Spanish, Polish, etc.) [pw], [bw], [mw], [fw], [vw] are clusters, not a unitary segments. Many languages impose a ban on such sequences (English has them only in handful of loans from languages in which they are permissible). Distinctively rounded labial phonemes contrasting with non-labial ones are very rare (understandably so, since in most languages labialisation = rounding), but do occur in some languages.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Marc Verhaegen

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 9:27 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Wine

>>There was no *pw. There can't be any *pw sound. The sound *p is inheirantly >>labial to begin with! How does one honestly distinguish *p and *pW? Any >>examples of this in a HUMAN language? What about French pois & pas? Marc