[Lingtyp] Contrastive vowel and consonant length?

[Michael Daniel]

ps Sorry, i shouldn't have sent it to the general list. I am aware that
individual cases do not undermine the general correlation. But because
Florian also asked for language-level evidence, I provided (my
understanding of) the data I know of.

Michael Daniel

вс, 20 дек. 2020 г., 19:25 Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com>:

> Dear Florian,
>
> i guess this depends on how to define consonant length, and what to count
> as presence of vowel quantity contrast. In East Caucasian, many languages
> distinguish between geminate vs simple, alias strong vs weak, alias fortis
> vs lenis, alias non-aspirated vs aspirated stops.
>
> At the same time, vowel length, if present at all, is much less central to
> the system, though this varies across languages. I'm afraid, in order to
> fully assess the force of this implication, you should somehow account also
> for the role of the two contrasts in the language.
>
> As one example, there is an important contrast between fortis and lenis
> stops in Archi, Lezgic.  Vowel length is also present, but is used in
> expressive elements such as distance demonstratives; secondarily as
> compensation for the loss of the intervocalic -q- in one (of several
> hundred) of verbal forms; in some morphophonological contexts with the
> coordinative clitic; and maybe in one or two other forms that do not
> quickly come to my mind.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Michael
>
> вс, 20 дек. 2020 г., 19:13 <florian.matter at isw.unibe.ch>:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> is anybody aware of large-scale studies investigating the distribution of
>> contrastive length in consonants and vowels? Preliminary analysis of
>> phoible data tells me that there is an implicational tendency where if a
>> language has contrastive length in consonants, it also has it in vowels.
>> Are there studies supporting this? I’m also interested in literature on the
>> geographical and genealogical distribution of contrastive length.
>>
>> Best,
>> Florian
>>
>>
>> _____________________________
>>
>> Universität Bern
>>
>> Institut für Sprachwissenschaft
>>
>> Florian Matter
>>
>>
>>
>> Länggassstrasse 49
>>
>> CH-3012 Bern
>>
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>>
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>>
>> *florian.matter at isw.unibe.ch <florian.matter at isw.unibe.ch>*
>>
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>
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