h- vs. x-aspiration in LDN

RLR rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu
Tue Feb 20 20:45:17 UTC 2001


> I believe Kaw is generally like Osage in having velar aspiration (except for having c^
> affrication instead of c affrication), but Omaha-Ponca and Quapaw have laryngeal aspiration.

No, Kaw just has the [h] aspiration, also Quapaw. Osage stands alone in
Dhegiha in having [x] aspiration at all.  [x] aspiration appears to be
recorded for Biloxi and Ofo however (and possibly Tutelo in the Dorsey
transcriptions). I don't think that Dakotan [x] and [h] aspiration have
distinct historical sources, but the set of correspondences that we
reconstruct as *ph, *th, *kh in a few words might have involved C[x]
clusters. But this would only be in a few words like 'grizzly'. Most
Dakotan th go back to what we reconstruct as *ht.  There are fossilized
morphophonemic rules in Dakotan that show h-C > Ch.

bob



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