[p], [b]

From: Mark Odegard
Message: 5153
Date: 2000-12-22

Harald Hammarstrom wrote:
> > And in Arabian?
> > Why there's no "p" in Arabian?
>
> It just turned to f, don't know the details.
>
> mvh
>
> Harald

I gather that 'Bombay' and 'Pompeii' are homophones in Arabic.

Considering the difficulties the historical linguists have proving the
existance of [b] in PIE, one wonders if there is some sort of
special problem with this particular phoneme. Certainly, if lip
rounding is subtracted, [p] and [b] do become less distinct.

Mark.