conditioning of Uto-Aztecan *p in Nahuatl

Sat Dec 1 15:12:14 UTC 2012

Hello,

Here is another counterexample to the absolute rigidity of a phonetic process, from the Nisqa'a language (British Columbia, Canada):  a -t pronominal suffix (3rd sg) is phonologically deleted before a "connective" (consisting of a fricative "s" or "L" (lateral)) under most conditions), but with one exception, as shown below:  (all ex's here use the 'non-determinate' connective =L, used before most nouns; transcription is phonemic):

Examples in (1) show the most common type of transitive clause (here introduced by an AUX):  the connective is morphosyntactically part of the noun phrase  but phonologically attached to the previous word:

(1) Yukw=t jap[-t]=L hanaq'=L kwila             'The woman is/was making the [traditional] cape/blanket' 
PROG.AUX=3ERG make[-3]=CONN woman=CONN blanket

(1a) Yukw=t jap-t                                         'She is/was making it'

(1aa) Yukw=t jap[-t]=L kwila                         'She is/was making the blanket'
(1ab) Yukw=t jap[-t]=L hanaq'                      'The woman is/was making it'

In (1aa) and (1ab), only the semantics (and, in speech, lesser stress on the subject) indicate whether the noun is subject or object (if there might be ambiguity, both nouns would be mentioned in the sentence, as in (1)).

In (1b) the suffix appears in front of a following q (since only =s and =L cause it to delete), but the postclitic morpheme ==qat 'quotative, hearsay' loses its own final t before the following connective (but the deleting rule does not apply if the phoneme t is part of a previous word):

1b) Yukw=t jap-t==qa[t]=L hanaq'=L kwila   'I hear(d) that the woman is was making the blanket'  
                        ==hearsay

1c) Yukw=t jap-t==qat                                 ''I hear(d) she was making it

Examples in (2) illustrate another type of clause ("predicate-focused"), where the [t] is preserved to indicate the pronominal subject:

(2)  Jap-∂-[t]=L hanaq'=L kwila                     'The woman MADE the blanket' (eg not bought it)
    make-NOMZ-[3]                                    (lit The blanket is what the woman MADE, ... the woman's MAKING) 

(2a)  Jap-∂-t                                               'She MADE it'

Compare (2aa) and (2ab) with (1aa) and (1ab) above:  here the suffix -t is preserved phonologically when the noun it refers to is not mentioned in the sentence:

(2aa) Jap-∂-t=L kwila                                     'She MADE the blanket'
(2ab) Jap-∂-[-t]=L hanaq'                               'The woman MADE it'

Only the grammatical difference, in this particular type of clause, justifies the phonological preservation of the suffix. 

(As in the (1) examples, addition of ==qat would make the -t appear in both sentences).   

From: paoram at unipv.it
To: sashavovin at gmail.com; nathanwhill at gmail.com
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2012 12:18:31 +0100
CC: histling-l at mailman.rice.edu
Subject: Re: [Histling-l] conditioning of Uto-Aztecan *p in Nahuatl

Nathan Hill  wrote:

  “Dear Historical Linguists. [...]My 
  neogrammarian heart tells me that sound changes are aware of phonetic 
  environments only and not part of speech categories.”
  I have high respect for the Neogrammarians, 
  but the statement above is a very strong one. It amounts to separate 
  completely phonetics from grammar and syntax (or morphoyntax). If, say, a 
  derivational suffix comes to modify the final part of a verbal root 
  we can have a new basis in the word 
  formation rule. For instance OGk. Nom. gàla “milk”, Genit. 
  gàlak(t)os observes the rule that no OGk. word can end by a  
  stop consonant. This induces the morphologically bound sound change –k > 0 
  in the Nomin. A rule that does not apply to words such as galaktìzo 
  “I’m breast-feeded”, galaktokòmos “shepherd” etc. .On 
  its turn gala-, and not galak-,can be the basis form for compounds such as 
  galathenòs “suckling child”.

Best.

Paolo

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Prof.Paolo 
Ramat
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS )
Direttore del 
Centro "Lingue d'Europa: tipologia, storia e sociolinguistica" 
(LETiSS)
Palazzo del Broletto - Piazza della Vittoria

27100 
Pavia
tel. ++390382375811
fax ++390382375899

From: Alexander Vovin 
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2012 8:49 AM
To: Nathan Hill 
Cc: histling-l 
Subject: Re: [Histling-l] conditioning of Uto-Aztecan *p in 
Nahuatl

Dear 
Nathan,

Very roughly speaking, but nouns and verbs behave very 
differently in this respect in Japanese. Even within the verbal paradigm, older 
grammaticalizations are different from more recent, although they can be traced 
to very similar phonological forms, e,g., the paradigmaic form of the verb yom- 
'to 
count/read'

Old Japanese        Late Middle 
Japanese                         
Modern 
Japanese
perfective                          
yo2mi1taru            
yomitaru                                              
yoNda
desiderative                      
_____                    
yomitai                                                
yomitai

Desiderative is much younger form than the perfective, and 
although both are essentially identical phonologically. they show two very 
different ref;exes in MJ.

Hope this helps,

Sasha

On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 12:34 AM, Nathan Hill <nathanwhill at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Historical Linguists,

In a paper about Tibetan I 
  am criticizing someone for proposing that
the same segment became one thing 
  in nouns and another thing in verbs.
My neogrammarian heart tells me that 
  sound changes are aware of
phonetic environments only and not part of 
  speech categories. Such a
thing is thus only possible if verbs are 
  phonetically different than
nouns in a systematic way (which is of course 
  possible).

Anyhow, a reviewer tells me that proto-Uto-Aztecan initial 
  *p becomes
zero in Nahuatl nouns but is preserved in verbs and cites the 
  pair
(.-tl "water" vs -p.ca "to 
  wash"). The reviewer does not cite a
discussion of this and I am totally at 
  sea in the Uto-Aztecan
literature. But, if this is an uncontroversial part 
  of Uto-Aztecan
historical phonology surely it has given rise to the 
  same
methodological concerns that I raise (sound change should 
  apply
blindly).

I would be very grateful for any discussion of this 
  or advice on
treatments of this question in literature.

with 
  gratitude,
Nathan
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-- 

Alexander Vovin
Professor of East Asian Languages 
and Literatures
Department of East Asian Languages and 
Literatures
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 
USA
========================
iustitiam magni facite, infirmos 
protegite

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