[Lingtyp] allophony of [h] and [ɸ]

[Christian Lehmann]

Dear all,

many thanks for your helpful answers so far. For additional 
clarification, here are the Cabecar phoneme inventories:

 1.

    /Oral vowel phonemes in strong syllables/


	

front

	

back


	


	

unrounded

	

rounded

high

	

i

	


	

u

half-high

	

ɪ

	

ɤ

	

ʊ

half-low

	

ɛ

	


	

ɔ

low

	


	

a

	


Plus nasal vowels.


 1.

    /Consonantal phonemes/

articulation    place

mode

	

bilabial

	

dental

	

palatal

	

velar

	

glottal

stop

	

voiceless

	

plain

	

p

	

t

	


	

k

	


aspirated

	

pʰ

	

tʰ

	


	

kʰ

	


voiced

	


	

b

	

d

	

ɟ

	


	


fricative

	


	

s

	

ʃ

	


	

h

liquid

	


	

ɺ

	


	


	




As may be seen, there is plenty of bilabial stops, but no labial 
fricatives; there is no [f] even at the phonetic level.

While the change from [p] via [ɸ] to [h] seems to be the solution for 
the Japanese and Cariban facts, the Cabecar system would not seem to 
encourage positing it for this language.

I am aware that [u] [ɯ] and [ɸ] share a bilabial articulation. However, 
I have never seen a _phonological_ feature [bilabial]. Maybe I must 
revive Jakobson's [flat].

The details of the alternation of [h] ~ [ɸ] remain to be ascertained. At 
any rate, there is free variation [h] ~ [x] (or maybe [χ]).

Greetings, Christian
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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