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I haven't heard of gender-based differences, but asymmetries in stop
lenition are also found in the Cariban family. <br>
<ul>
<li>Word-finally in Pemón and Kapóng, *p, *t, and *k all become /k/;
in Makushi and Panare, all 3 continue on to become glottal stops. (In
Panare, Pemón, Kapóng, Makushi, Tiriyó, and some dialects of Kari'nja,
nasals undergo a similar velarization word-finally: both *m and *n >
ŋ.) <br>
</li>
<li>Word-medially, cluster reduction in Panare is differential
depending on initial voiceless stop (*pj > ʔj, whereas both *tj and
*kj > htʃ) and in Tiriyó depending on the second stop in a cluster
of two voiceless stops (*Cp > hɸ > :ɸ, Ct > ht > :t, and Ck
> hk > :h), with the initial stop consistently reducing to /h/ in
one dialect and to compensatory length on the preceding vowel in a
second dialect, but with second stops all three behaving differently,
bilabial leniting to a fricative at the same point of articulation,
coronal not leniting at all, and velar leniting and debuccalizing to
the glottal fricative. <br>
</li>
<li>Intervocalic (and pre-nasal) voiceless stops present a regular
across-the-board voicing assimilation in several languages, but an
asymmetry with *p also occurs in Katxuyana: *p > h V__V;
unconditioned change(sometimes blocked by consonant clusters) *p > ɸ
> h is found in several languages, including at least Hixkaryana,
Kuikuru, Karihona, and Ye'kwana . I don't have the data in my head for
the southern Cariban languages,
but it seems to me that Bakairi also shows some asymmetrical lenition,
maybe *p > w, whereas *t > d and *k >g. (Check this one with
Sérgio Meira if it's of interest.)<br>
</li>
</ul>
Let me know if you need references for any of this.<br>
<br>
Spike<br>
<br>
Eduardo Ribeiro wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:f4bc15f50912042213y10901a2qe4be78c4e32b17f3@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Dear colleagues,
A comparison between Karajá (Macro-Jê stock, Central Brazil) and
related languages (such as Proto-Jê) reveals that Karajá underwent a
pervasive diachronic process of voiceless-stop lenition; in CrV
clusters, voiceless stops were thoroughly eliminated; in other
positions, *p appears as /w/ and *t as /r/.
*k, however, still occurs as /k/, but with a twist: in male speech, it
may be eliminated altogether (kòhã 'armadillo' > òhã, etc.). Thus, it
seems likely that the genesis of male vs. female speech distinctions
in Karajá may be somehow related to such tendency towards stop
lenition. Notice that if lenition treated all voiceless stops the
same way, *k would show up as a velar approximant in Karajá (a very
marked, unstable phoneme cross-linguistically, as far as I know).
I would appreciate any examples of similar asymmetries in the
diachronic and synchronic behavior of voiceless stops. Examples
illustrating differing reflexes of a sound change between male and
female speakers would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Eduardo
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wado.us">http://wado.us</a>
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