Re: phones and phonemes

--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, "Jean-Paul G. POTET" <potetjp@w...>
wrote:

> "No. It's not a rule that concerns romance languages, but,

apparently all,

> languages. When a voiced consonant is followed by an unvoiced

consonant the

> universal reaction is to devoice the former." Jean-Paul G. POTET,

FRANCE

>
> "Not so."
> Richard WORDINGHAM, ENGLAND
>
> So, how do you account for [b] in Lat. <inscribere> and [p] in Lat.
> <inscriptio>? (The <e> of <-ere> is short. The <i> of <--io> is

short.)

I was denying the universality, not its applicability to Latin. How
does voicing assimilation work in Algerian (or Classical) Arabic?
In English inflection, the suffix assimilates to the stem.
Contrariwise, the assimilation in 'width' and 'breadth' consists of
devoicing, though I think there's a lot of variation in what
happens. For examples, the 'Oxford Etymological Dictionary' by
Onions gives final [dT] and [tT] for both of them.

Richard.