--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
> wrote:
> > Richard Wordingham wrote:
> > > Spoken Tamil does have initial voiced stops - or so it is often
> > > reported, e.g. look at
> > >

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb/book/chapter1/chapter1.html

> > > and follow the link to voiced consonants.
> >
> > _Phonemic_ ones?
>
> Yes. There wouldn't be much point in discussing them if they
> weren't! On the other hand, I would not be surprised if /f/ were
> marginal.
>

I understand that initial voiced consonants are only in loan words
and I wasn't sure how much the distinction is used by those who
aren't familiar with eiher Hindi or English phonology. I am aware of
the discussion about whether to represent these in script but I
haven't seen it yet.

Suzanne McCarthy