devoiced "n"
r. joe campbell
campbel at indiana.edu
Sun Jun 22 23:00:21 UTC 2003
John,
Last night (before I had seen any replies to you) I started
writing you a notita, which became a notota -- and then the line
to my server dropped me, losing all the detail in phonetic
description, together with my patience. No matter, anything that
I write after midnight is filled with confusion.
I have admired your energy and activities in Nahuatl for
several years now, and I think that the alternations that you're
pointing out, as well as the problem of "no possible
alternation" (e.g., "ximoquetzaca") is an interesting problem,
from both the points of view of the first language learner and of
the language analyst. But my main point was a sort of negative
remark about discussing "devoiced n's". The label "devoiced n"
or "voiceless n" already has a well established meaning in
phonetic description -- it refers to a sound segment in which
there is oral obstruction (e.g., the tip of the tongue is in
contact with the upper front teeth or the alveolar ridge) and the
velum is swung down and forward, allowing the air stream to flow
through the nasal passages, while there is no vibration of the
vocal folds (state of voicelessness). From your earlier
statements (and now reinforced by your replies since), as well as
familiarity with some dialects of Nahuatl, I realized that what
you probably meant was "n deletion", "n dropping", or "get-rid-
of-the-nasal-segment-word-final-position".
During the summer of my first contact with Nahuatl, I lived in
Tepoztlan and spent more than half of my time in a nearby
village, Santa Catarina, so I had the opportunity to hear and
record a lot of both dialects. Some Tepoztecos (especially a friend
that I talked a lot with) ridiculed the speech and the people of
Santa Catarina, partly because of their "ignorance" in
pronouncing "final n":
Tepoztlan Santa Catarina
house calli calli
houses caltin calti~
(where the ~ indicates that they didn't pronounce a final n
(failed to obstruct the oral passage [the essential
characteristic of consonants]), but *did* swing the velum down
and forward, allowing the air to flow through the nasal passages,
resulting in a *nasalized* vowel. This is actually frequently an
intermediate step in the loss of n. If it stops there, the
language is said to have "nasal vowels" and, just as there are
Coke and Pepsi camps, some people would claim that the nasal
vowels were phonemes and the others would claim that the nasal
vowels were merely the superficial result of dynamic rules that
assumed the nasal consonants to still "be there" at some level
and to be involved in nasalization of the vowels.
But if the process didn't stop there, the next step would be
like your dialect: the gesture of the velum which *opens* the
nasal passages would be deleted from one's pronunciation habits
-- the vowel of the final syllable would remain "oral" and the
"dropping" would be historically complete.
So the following data is representative:
n-dropping dialect n-retaining dialect
it flies patlani patlani
it flew --> opatla opatlan
they flew opatlanqueh opatlanqueh
he gets angry cualani cualani
she got angry --> ocuala ocuala
they got angry ocualanqueh ocualanqueh
In describing "what's going on", I subscribe to (and actively
use) your "mafia" (as Sancho Panza said, "Please excuse...")
terminology: if the /n/ is "protected", it stays. If not, it
gets "erased".
All the best,
Joe
p.s. I note that Davius makes a good point with reference to the
process of de-voicing and our expectations of regularity
(although language comes with no warranty certificate on this
issue):
1. we would expect /n/ to behave the same in both environments.
Neither your speakers nor those of Santa Catarina change
"protected" 'n'.
2. we would expect /n/ and /l/ to behave in a parallel way.
Speakers from Santa Catarina de-voice their /l/ both in
word-final environment and before voiceless segments.
They have no voiceless 'n' in word-final environment nor
before voiceless segments. (It is interesting to picture
[with our ears] what a voiceless 'n' (sniff) would sound
like.)
p.p.s. With regard to Miqueltzi's comment on so-called "classical"
Nahuatl, here are some examples from Molina (mainly 1555). And Michael's
cautionary remark about the correlation between what is written and what
is actually pronounced is something to laminate and carry around in one's
billfold -- what is written helps us guess better, but it is not a
one-to-one map to reality.
(I would *guess* that fray Alonso's document involved his observation
of: 1) a substantial amount of observation of variation; and 2) an
intention to write down the more "explicit" or "careful" form.
aoctlei. falta por mengua. <ah1-oc-tleh-in +del.n>. 55m-9
atl molonia. fontanal lugar de fuentes. <a:tl1-molo:ni-ya:n +del.n>.
55m-10
atlei. falta por mengua. <ah1-tleh-in +del.n>. 55m-9
axca. agora tiempo presente. <a:xca:n +del.n>. 55m-00
axca =aoc. apenas o con dificultad. <ah1-oc a:xca:n +del.n>. 55m-1
axca =niman. agora luego. <niman a:xca:n +del.n>. 55m-00
ayaxca. apenas o con dificultad. <ah1-a:xca:n +del.n>. 55m-1
ayocaxca. apenas o con dificultad. <ah1-oc a:xca:n +del.n>. 55m-1
cacoya =tla. audiencia de los juezes. <p51-caqui-lo:2-ya:n +del.n>.
55m-1
caczohuaya. zapateria. <cactli-zo:1-hua2-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
castilla texocooctli. vino de manzanas. <castillan tetl1-xocotl-octli
+del.n>. 55m-20
castilla tonalxihuitl. manzanilla yerua conocida. <castillan to:na-l1-
xihuitl +del.n>. 55m-13
cecemaltepepa. a cada ciudad. <dupl-cem-a:tl1-tepe:tl-pan +del.n>.
55m-00
cecen tepepa. a cada ciudad. <dupl-cem-tepe:tl-pan +del.n>. 55m-00
chichilocuili. ceuo para pescar. <dupl-chi:lli-ocuilin +del.n>. 55m-
4
chihua =ichihualoya nic. a tiempo o coyuntura hazer algo. <poss-
chi:hua-lo:2-yan p11-p33-chi:hua +del.n>. 55m-1
cihuatepito. hembra pequen~a. <cihua:tl-tepi-to:n +del.n>. 55m-11
cochcayotiloya =ne. cenadero o cenador lugar. <p53-cochi-prt1-ca:5-
v04-caus08=0-lo:-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
cocototzauhya =to. chueca do juegan los huesos. <poss-dupl-cototztli-
v03b-prt1-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
cualoya =tla. cenadero o cenador lugar. <p51-cua:-lo:2-ya:n +del.n>.
55m-4
cuayotl =te. braueza tal. <p52-cua:-ni1-yo:tl1 +del.n>. 55m-2
cuicuicanito. grillo especie de cigarra. <dupl-cui:ca-ni1-to:n
+del.n>. 55m-10
ehuatlepitzalonito. fuelles pequen~as. <e:huatl-tletl-pi:tza-lo:2-ni1-
to:n +del.n>. 55m-10
iczaya =totla. pata o planta del pie. <poss-p51-icza-ya:n +del.n>.
55m-15
ilamato. vejezuela. <ilamatl-to:n +del.n>. 55m-19
ipa =zan. en alguna manera. <zan poss-pan +del.n>. 55m-7
ixocuili. ladilla. <i:xtli-ocuilin +del.n>. 55m-12
ixtechichihuiliztli. enfermedad tal. <i:xtli-te:ntli-dupl-chi:lli-
v03a-liz +del.n>. 55m-7
ixtechichilihui =n [scribal error: ??same as above item;
differentiated by n dropping: 55m]. enfermar delas pestan~as. <p11-
i:xtli-te:ntli-dupl-chi:lli-v03a +del.n>. 55m-7
manaya =atoyatl imo. remansso de rio. <a:tl1-toya:hui-l2 poss-p54-
mani-caus09-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-17
matepoztlaximalonito. azuela pequen~a. <ma:itl-tepoztli-p51-xi:ma-lo:1-
ni1-to:n +del.n>. 55m-00
miecti. muchedumbre. <miac-plur11 +del.n>. 55m-14
ocuili. ceuo para pescar. <ocuilin +del.n>. 55m-4
otlazotic immoyollotzi. hago gracias a vuestra merced. <o:-tlazoa:-l2-
v01a-prt2 in-poss-yollotl-tzin +del.n>. 71m2-13
pitzahuaya =to. cintura. <poss-pitza:hua-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
popohualonito =tla. escoba pequen~a o escobajo. <p51-pohpo:hua-lo:2-
ni1-to:n +del.n>. 55m-8
tenahueloa =ni. descercar destruir la cerca. <p11-tetl1-na:mitl-
hueloa: +del.n>. 55m-5
tenahuitoma =ni. descercar destruir la cerca. <p11-tetl1-na:mitl-
huitomi-caus09 +del.n>. 55m-5
tenaxitinia =ni. descercar destruir la cerca. <p11-tetl1-na:mitl-
xiti:ni-caus08 +del.n>. 55m-5
tepitoyotl. breuedad. <tepi-to:n-yo:tl1 +del.n>. 55m-2
tepozmaccuauhtepito. espada pequen~a. <tepoztli-ma:itl--cuahuitl-tepi-
to:n +del.n>. 55m-9
tepoztlacohualonito. marauedi. <tepoztli-p51-co:hua-lo:2-ni1-to:n
+del.n>. 55m-13
teuctlatoloya. audiencia de los juezes. <te:uctli-p51-ihtoa:-lo:2-
ya:n +del.n>. 55m-1
teyotia =nitla. apreciar poner o declarar el precio dela cosa. <p11-
p51-te:ntli-yo:tl1-v04-caus08 +del.n>. 55m-1
teyotiani =tla. apreciador tal. <p51-te:ntli-yo:tl1-v04-caus08=0-ni1
+del.n>. 55m-1
teyotilli =tla. apreciada cosa assi. <p51-te:ntli-yo:tl1-v04-caus08=0-
l1 +del.n>. 55m-1
tlaliloya =ne. assiento do se sientan. <p53-tla:lia:-lo:2-ya:n
+del.n>. 55m-1
tlaliloya =tlatla [scribal error: ??third "t" looks a little like an
"i", but with the "t", the word matches "tlatlatlaliloya" (except
for the dropped "n") in form and meaning: 55m]. armario o almario.
<dupl-p51-tla:lia:lo:2-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-1
tlatiloya =ne. escondrijo de hombres. <p53-tla:tia:2-lo:2-ya:n
+del.n>. 55m-8
tlatlatiloya =tla. despenssa. <p51-dupl-tla:tia:2-lo:2-ya:n +del.n>.
55m-6
tocoya =te. cimiterio. <p52-to:ca1-lo:1-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
tzinnamacoya =ne. mancebia puteria. <p53-tzi:ntli-namaca-lo:2-ya:n
+del.n>. 55m-13
tzintla =tla. abaxo. <poss-tzi:ntli-tlan +del.n>. 55m-00
tzontecoya =tla. audiencia de los juezes. <p51-tzontli-tequi1-lo:2-
ya:n +del.n>. 55m-1
xalpa. arenal. <xa:lli-pan +del.n>. 55m-1
yaotlapixque on yeya. estancia de veladores en batallas. <ya:o:tl-p51-
piya-prt1-plur14 o:n ca:1b-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-9
yohuapa. deman~ana. <yohua-pan +del.n>. 55m-5
zazaliuhya =to. chueca do juegan los huesos. <poss-dupl-za:lli-v03a-
prt1-ya:n +del.n>. 55m-4
zohuatepito. hembra pequen~a. <zohuatl-tepi-to:n +del.n>. 55m-11
zoyatepito. palmito. <zo:ya:tl-tepi-to:n +del.n>. 55m-15
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