nahuatl hk < kk

[jonathan.amith at yale.edu]

Other examples:

Oapan l > h / ___ C  as in kwa:hpale:wi:seh  they will come to help him
San Francisco Ozomatlan has h for s in forms such as kochihneki.

Many, many variants have final /n/ and /w/ become h

nokone:h  my child

o:toma:h  s/he got fat

si:talih   star

etc.



Quoting Magnus Pharao Hansen <magnuspharao at gmail.com>:

> listeros
>
> kk > hk is indeed a very common sound change in modern Nahuatl - it is also
> found throughout Morelos and in southern Puebla. I do not think however tht
> it is best understood as a dissimilation. I think it is a part of a much
> more pervasive tendency in Nahuatl to turn all consonant clusters into
> aspiration + consonant. For many dialects most consonant clusters, including
> those with sonorants are pronounced /hC/. So that e.g. kalli is pronounced
> [kahli], teopixki [teopihki], itta [ihta]. In my opinion this in turn is a
> part of the nahuatl rule of devoicing and aspirating syllable final
> consonants. The way I see there is a general "drift"  in Nahuatl making all
> syllable final consonants tend towards becoming h.
>
> Magnus
>



-- 
Jonathan D. Amith
Director: Mexico-North Program on Indigenous Languages
Research Affiliate: Gettysburg College; Yale University; University of Chicago
(O) 717-337-6795
(H) 717-338-1255
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Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
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