[EDLING:252] Re: phonology question

[sicola at DOLPHIN.UPENN.EDU]

Sounds good... but wouldn't the "ti" in words like "relate" and "collaborate"
become voiced, in that case? they have the liquid+ei...  Yet we
say "relaSHun," not "relaZHun."

It's still the spelling issue that's weird. In all the examples given below,
when the suffix is attached, all voiced fricatives are spelled with S, not T.
Whenever the T is used, it is voiceless. Can anyone think of another word that
ends in TION (letters) instead of SION, where the TI is pronounced /zh/?



Quoting Leo VanLier <lvanlier at miis.edu>:
> A perfect excuse for procrastination (given that I am late with several
> papers...)
> Here is my guess - I am sure someone will be able to shoot holes in it.
>
> If the verb ends in /d/ (ex.: include), it will always have a voiced
> fricative in the derived noun.
> If the verb ends in /t/ (ex.: equate), the fricative will be voiced if
> (and only if) the preceding syllable has [+approximant/liquid] [+V] – as
> in [wei], [rei], [lei], or vice versa as in [er]. Presumably, in syllabic
> structure terms, this combination is "heavy" and thus triggers voicing in
> the following consonant, if that consonant is the onset of a new syllable
> (e-kwei-zjen) – I won't attempt to insert IPA symbols.
> It works not only with [ei] but also with [I] as in deride - derision (of
> course there is also a vocalic laxing rule in effect here: from [ai] to
> [I] - is this the famous tri-syllabic laxing rule?), [u] as in
> allude-allusion and [o] as in erode- erosion.
>
> LvL
>


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