Hi! I'm developing a conlang which I want to use as the proto-language of a fictional language family. And I have not designed any allophony system because I wanted to make them emerge "naturally". And a doubt came to me... Can a natural language NOT have allophones at all? Or will they emerge as the people speaks? In my research I found no evidence in support of either "yes" nor "no"... Thanks!
I don’t know of a single natural language that displays no allophony at all, but theoretically, it’s not necessary. I’m not sure how you’d get evidence for this, though. If no language has ever done it, that’s not sufficient evidence that it can never happen—just that it’s extremely unlikely. But yeah, that’s kind of a weird thing. I’ve never thought about it before. It’s not like phonological systems are deficient, and you can look at everyone and say, “Yep, that sound’s going to change one day”, and yet, they just do… But importantly for this question, they change in ways speakers consider unimportant, yet speakers keep the changes (like our aspirated vs. unaspirated distinction in English). I think that’s the best I can do for you. It’s never happened; it’s extremely unlikely; but I can’t say it’s impossible.
