Pronunciation Questions

[Campbell, R Joe]

Doug,

   Put me down as one of the people on Nahuat-l who appreciates your 
questions and, who (I hope) has gained from your encouraging us to 
probe what we know and what we don't know.
   Andrews' statement (p. 36) that /m/ becomes [n] (and *voiceless*) 
when "left exposed" at the end of a syllable or vocable is obviously at 
least partially correct.  Although /m/ and /n/ contrast before a vowel 
in the same word, they neutralize 1) in word final position (resulting 
in [n]) or 2) before a consonant:

  1
    tlami             it ends up
   otlan              it ended up

  2
    tzontecomatl      head
    tzonteconcocolli  headache

   The "partially" refers to his claim that the [n] is voiceless.  He 
gives no reason that devoicing occurs, nor does he cite a source.  This 
isn't fatal, since he frequently makes claims about Nahuatl without the 
kind of evidence which most late 20th century linguists feel compelled 
to -- and then if one examines relevant data, he finds that the support 
is there for Andrews' claim!
   However, I have searched and reflected at length and I have found no 
basis for this "devoicing" claim.  Further, I have difficulty in 
imagining it to be true. Now, while this may be due more to the limits 
on my imagination than to the facts of Nahuatl pronunciation, I doubt 
it.  Also, I know that we are discussing "classical" Nahuatl, but I 
believe that modern dialects are helpful in inferring what the older 
stages of the language were like.  And in spite of having familiarity 
with a number of modern dialects, I have never heard a final voiceless 
nasal.  (I have to concede that if they existed, they would be 
relatively hard to heard, but I *listen*!!)


> 1. He talks about 'n' and 'w' becoming unvoiced at the end of
> syllables, but not about 'l'. I've seen elsewhere (on the Net) a
> statement that 'l' also becomes devoiced, which I gather would sound
> like the release of 'tl,' i.e. an unvoiced lateral fricative. Is this
> common? And I assume 'm' at the end of syllables in words like
> *ipampa* would do the same?

Iztayohmeh,

Joe

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