catawba phonems /r/, /d/, and /n/

[BARudes at aol.com]

In reference to Kathy's comments, /r/, /n/ and /d/ are clearly contrastive
phonemes in Catawba as it was recorded in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.  All three occur in word-medial position before oral vowels (e.g.,
in different modal prefixes).  In word-initial position, only /d/ and /n/
occur.  (There are mutating verbs that mark the first singular with /n/, the
third singular (bare stem) with /d/ (from underlying /r/) and the third
plural with /i-/ which causes the stem consonant to appear as /r/.  I don't
remember any cases, but there may be cases where Speck or another research
failed to hear the initial /i/ of the third plural and, as a result, the verb
appeared to show a contrast between initial /n/ /d/ and /r/.)  Before nasal
vowels, only /r/ and /n/ occur.

What I was talking about in my response was the underlying (morphophenemic)
system and the likely pre-Catawba phonemic system, where /d/ appears to be
derivative from /r/ and /n/ (except in the case of a few loan words and sound
symbolic words).  Modern Catawba, as recorded for example by Speck and
Siebert, was a mixture of two or more dialects/langauges (Esaw, Saraw and
perhaps others) with slightly different rules for the distribution of /r/ /n/
and /d/.  Also, the change that resulted in the denasalization of /n/ to /d/
was ongoing in the late 1800s and early 1900s so that /n/ would appear for
some speakers before oral vowels in some morphemes, but only /d/ would occur
before oral vowels for other speakers.  In short, the phonemic status of /d/
resulted from language mixture and ongoing sound change, aided by loan words.