>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.
While Marc V.'s appeal to my reasoning with the unescapable pois/pas
contrast in French made me feel like a cute little dribbling child being fed
pea soup, I'm glad that my feelings are correct... it IS rare. The fact that
it is rare means that Miguel must _heavily_ justify its use in pre-IE
reconstruction. I could reconstruct a retroflex "r" in some earlier stage of
IE too but I would have to somehow justify it in a mucho grando kinda way
for it to be credible. 'Nuff said. Carry on.
- gLeN
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