Problem persists, albeit with a different directory as last visited, with an svn up to r22876.
make -C languages realclean make[1]: Entering directory `/Users/jimk/work/parrot/languages' make[1]: *** No rule to make target `realclean'. Stop. make[1]: Leaving directory `/Users/jimk/work/parrot/languages' make: *** [languages-realclean] Error 2