On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 22:47:49 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:
> as much as you know, what is the natlang using the most little number of
> phonemes?

The answer used to be Rotokas (6 consonants + 5 vowels = 11 phonemes)
until Pirahã (7 consonants + 3 vowels = 10 phonemes) became more
widely known.

> I've heard about languages with only 4 wovels (nahuatl?)

Arabic has only three distinctive vowels, as far as I know. (This is
one reason why I consider it rather a pain to write non-Arabic
languages in the Arabic writing system.)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Watch the Reply-To!