Histling-l Digest, Vol 47, Issue 11

[Marie-Lucie Tarpent]

I think that the *alternation* between laterals and sibilants in Takelma, etc is different from the alleged historical *changes* from /l/ to a sibilant brought up earlier.  The phonetic difference between those categories (even where there is no phonological significance, as in Takelma which does not have the lateral fricative L in its phonological inventory) is consciously manipulated for stylistic purposes in non-normal speech (ie, in identifying the speech of animal characters during the recital or performance of legends), not in conversation or narrative.  

The Takelma alternation applies not to words per se but to special prefixes used to identify the speech of important animal characters (a feature it shares with some other languages of the NW coast area).  In Sahaptian and Chinookan, on the other hand, some consonant phonemes occur in pairs or even triplets which alternate in the same words in order to convey stylistic features such as diminution or augmentation, and /s/and /L/ are part of the extensive Sahaptian consonant alternation pattern.  

In all those cases there is no evidence of phonological change from one phonetic category to the other in lexical items, between one historical period and another.    

marie-lucie     

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:58:48 +0200
To: histling-l at mailman.rice.edu
CC: histling-l at mailman.rice.edu
From: linpb at hum.au.dk
Subject: Re: [Histling-l] Histling-l Digest, Vol 47, Issue 11








Message body



Laterals and sibilants:
In Takelma, Sahaptian, Wakashan and Chemakuan languages, all spoken near Salish,
laterals and sibilants can vary
(1) depending on the person spoken to (Nootka crosseyed people, Quileute small men, etc.)
(2) depending on the speaker in myths (e.g. Coyote sibilant, Grizzly Bear lateral, etc.)


On the other hand, dentals are also frequently involved.


See Mithun's Languages of native North America p. 273-276 for examples and sources.


Peter Bakker







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