--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:
>
> "letter-game" not phonology.
>
> Just because you don't happen to like it? :-)
>
> ============
> Do you have a real language on this planet
> where phonologically relevant /kw/ and /k/
> behave in a different way
> from the sequence /k/ + /w/ ?
The contrast is certainly popular in reconstructions. A contrast *kW
v. *kw is reconstructed for Proto-Lolo-Burmese.
I haven't found any definite examples, but the Ethiopic languages look
quite promising. Geez and Tigrinya look quite possible for a contrast
between /kW/ (labiovelar) and cluster /kw/. A phonological difference
from the clusters, even if there be no minimal pair, is that while
Tigrinya quinquiliterals are extremely rare (reportedly just one true
quinquiliteral, namely g-r-n-g-r 'start to form pod (of legume)'),
roots with two labiovelars are not, e.g. gW-n-kW, kW-r-kW-m, kW-r-kW
and gW-r-gW.
Richard.