Is there any semantic difference between "absolutely no x, except y" and "except y, absolutely no x"?

Bit of a quibble on a discussion elsewhere.

I made the following statement:

They had absolutely no debt, except for their mortgage.

Someone (with whom I disagree vehemently) has accused this of being a self-contradicting statement.

I argue that the meaning is identical to:

Except for their mortgage, they had absolutely no debt.

Am I missing something, or am I right in thinking that the meaning of these two statements is exactly the same, and that the inclusion of except in an absolute statement does not render the statement self-contradictory but simply makes the single exception clear?

OP's friend is the most extreme pedant I've ever heard of! Here are 136,000 written instances of absolutely nothing except.

I imagine this guy would positively foam at the mouth if he ever came across quite unique (admittedly less common, but still 120,000 instances).

If there are two ways of saying something, there is something different. It may be subtle, but they're different. Another way of saying this is that there are no exact synonyms. There will be some situation where one can distinguish the meaning of two different ways of saying things.

In your examples, the 'except' clause coming second after a very categorical statement is strange, because 'absolutely' implies there are no exceptions. With the exception first, one is prepared for the general statement afterwards.

Of course if this were mathematics, then yes, they -should- be considered identical. But for humans the change in order renders a change in emphasis and so a change in meaning.