l vs. s, sh?

[jess tauber]

Hi folks. I've got a question- is historical connection between laterals and sibilants/shibilants common in the languages of the world? I've seen this type of thing as a sound symbolic alternation in a number of different families, but am ignorant about its appearance in comparisons when such alternations are not evident.

In Interior Salish (Kuipers) *t'ak'l(a) refers to packing up provisions for a trip- the Yahgan equivalent is ta:kasa-

Then I.S. (under root *tl'aq to prick, pin, skewer, stick in) there are forms that point to *tl'aq-ana7 for pocket, sack, bag. The Yahgan equivalent here is gvsanux a bag, sack, pocket.

In both examples the Yahgan form has the sibilant where the Interior Salish has instead the lateral (either as phoneme or feature).

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net
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