[etnolinguistica] RE: Lenition in Northwest Ge

[Dan Everett]

Andres,

Well, I don't think I will send any examples at this point, since I am
still writing the paper. But I will put the paper up on my website as
soon as it is done and let you know. However, it is currently 4th on my
writing projects stack so it will take a while. In the meantime, I will
answer the questions below:

> Sorry, I missed your point the first time around. The reason I do not 
> consider it fortition, i.e. assuming that r/w are strengthed 
> phrase-internally to t/p is that nonalternating /r/s and /w/s also 
> occur.

Yes, this is what I meant, but let me press on a little further. By
nonalternating /r/s and /w/s do you mean /r/s and /w/s that stay
sonorant even when an "echo vowel" isn't inserted, or /r/s and /w/s that
are _always_ followed by an echo vowel, even phrase-internally? If it
were the latter, can the class of words that have such final consonants
be characterized in any independent way (i.e., verbs vs. other words)?

I mean that there are pre-pausal /r/s and syllable-final /w/s which
never correspond to /t/s and /p/s. The echo vowel only appears
pre-pausally. No, the words cannot be characterizedin any independent
way morphologically, not so far as I can tell presently. But I will be
careful to double-check this in writing up the paper. 


> Moreover, the conditions for /p/ lenition are different, slightly. 
> While both t and p lenite pre-pausally, p also lenites in coda 
> position.
>
> So, we have: 	t --> r/___##
> 			p --> w/___. and ___##
> 			k --> g/___## (Optional)

I'm confused here; again, does t-->r, p-->w mean t-->tV, p-->wV, or can
lenition occur independently of vowel epenthesis?

Yes, Lenition can occur independently of vowel epenthesis.
Vowel-epenthesis, again, is only a pre-pausal phenomenon. P-lention can
take place both pre-pausally and in coda position. But when the ##
environment is found, then there is an 'echo-vowel' there as well.

Marymarcia Guedes has a dissertation on Suya from UNICAMP and, though
her dissertation is not on this kind of thing, she does mention the
process. Ludovico dos Santos also has a couple of unpublished (?) papers
in which he mentions this. Their observations (thanks to their generous
sharing of their work with me) will be incorporated into the final
version of the paper, which should be ready in the summer. 

Thanks again, Andres, for your stimulating interaction.

Cheers,

Dan


.........................
Dan Everett
Professor of Phonetics and Phonology
Department of Linguistics
Arts Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
M13 9PL
Manchester, UK
dan.everett at man.ac.uk 
Phone: 44-161-275-3158
Dept. Fax and Phone: 44-161-275-3187
http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/info/staff/de



Visite a página do grupo Etnolingüística, no endereço seguinte:
http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/etnolinguistica/.
Submeta textos para discussão, contribua com a "Biblioteca Virtual", sugira contatos que venham a ser do interesse dos membros do grupo.  Enfim, participe!
Para cancelar sua assinatura deste grupo, envie um e-mail para:  
etnolinguistica-unsubscribe at yahoogrupos.com.br

 

Seu uso do Yahoo! Grupos é sujeito às regras descritas em: http://br.yahoo.com/info/utos.html