[Sugar-devel] Phonology (was Re: Fwd: Summer of Code Proposal: Furthering Speech Recognition in Sugar.)

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings Satya,
>
 I seem to remember reading that most of the world's
> languages draw from a pool of only 50-60 phonemes.

This turns out not to be the case. Individual languages commonly have
that many. English by itself has between 40 and 50 phonemes in
different dialects. Hindi/Urdu has a similar number.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi-Urdu_phonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipa#Description

Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 represent consonants and vowels, 31
are diacritics that are used to further specify these sounds, and 19
are used to indicate such qualities as length, tone, stress, and
intonation.
-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.net/ (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)