proposal that there may have been an additional fortis/lenis contrast in both voiced and voiceless obstruents has not been confirmed. In more recent work (Stewart 1999), he has quite plausibly suggested that PB may have had implosives, inherited from his Proto-Bantu-Potou-Tano *º and *ë, i.e. the same consonants I once reconstructed for "Proto-Benue-Kwa" (Hyman 1972). 3 Maddieson (1984) lists only three languages which have the 7V system in (1b): Kpelle, Dani and Kunama. Concerning these,

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... does not have this vowel system, but rather a 5V system with tense and lax (Lionel Bender, personal communication). 4 See Hyman (1999) for discussion of the difficulties in interpreting Bantu 7V systems and their description in the literature.