Dissimilation: kk > hk

[David Wright]

Estimados listeros:

I had a little time yesterday to put the kk > hk regressive dissimilation
rule (Andrews, 2003: 35) to the test, since this remained as an unresolved
loose end in a recent thread on this list. The first thing I did was to
check the first edition of Andrews’ Introduction... (1975) to see if he gave
any additional support, beyond the word Me:xihco, and I found that he did,
although it’s pretty vague. On page 453 he says “The shift of /kk/ to /hk/
occurs dialectally.” That pointed me in the direction of modern varieties of
Nahuatl.

John Sullivan has pointed out in a recent post (July 26, 2009) that “/kk/ >
/hk/ is an absolute rule for Huastecan Nahuatl”, based on his experience
with this variety.

In Pittman’s grammar of Tetelcingo Nahuatl (1954: 13) we find a description
of “Regressive dissimilation on the pattern C1C1 > hC1 between k- ‘it’ and a
stem-initial k or between other occasional clusters of identical consonants.
“ *ni-k(koa)ti: > ni-h(koa)ti: ‘I-it(buy)go’ D54,
“ *ti-k(cua)s-ki > ti-h(cua)s-ki ‘we-it(eat)will-pl’ D13,
“ *xi-k(mat)ta > xi-k(mah)ta ‘impa-it(know)dur’ W39.”
(Pittman's macrons have been changed to colons here.)

Guion, Amith, Doty, and Shport (n.d.) register the same change in a
phonological discussion of the effects of coda /h/ on tone conditioning in
Balsas Nahuatl. This /h/ is described as a glottal fricative (the one
represented in IPA as an ‘h’ with a little hook on top). A comparison of
words in the examples with Karttunen’s Analytical Dictionary (1992) shows
that the /h/ being discussed is found in the same position of the same words
as Karttunen’s ‘h’ (representing the saltillo /?/) in at least some cases.
In endnote 6 Guion et al. state: “While Ameyaltepec and Oapan have lost
non-word-final coda *h (historical *h), /h/ can be found in surface forms in
both Oapan and Ameyaltepec. In Oapan and Ameyaltepec geminate /kk/ and /ll/
> /hk/ and /hl/ and in Oapan /w/ > /h/ and /k/ > /h/ before all consonants.
However, it is outside the scope of the current paper to investigate the
phonetic nature of these /h/ productions, e.g., whether they are breathy or
voiceless and whether they affect the F0 of the preceding vowel.”

In a text on phonological analysis, published on the web and labeled “a
working, pre-publication draft,” with the request “Please do not quote,”
there is a chapter on dissimilation where an example of /kk/ > /xk/ (where x
has its IPA value, a velar fricative, like ‘j’ in Spanish) is given, from
North Puebla Nahuatl. This isn’t exactly the saltillo /?/, with known
allophones [?] and [h], but it’s certainly in the neighborhood.

Thus examples of Andrews’ dissimilation rule /kk/ > /hk/ may be found in
three varieties of Nahuatl, showing that it may be considered a widespread
morphophonological phenomenon. The fourth case, where /kk/ > /xk/,
represents a phonologically similar change. 

Going back to early colonial central Mexican Nahuatl, John Sullivan’s
question remains unanswered: “Is there any evidence in Classical Nahuatl
(besides the possible example of 'mexihco') of a 'c' actually being written
as an "h" or converting into the diacritic for a glottal stop, before
another /k/?”

Saludos cordiales,

David Wright

References

Andrews, J. Richard, Introduction to classical Nahuatl, Austin/London,
University of Texas Press, 1975.

Andrews, J. Richard, Introduction to classical Nahuatl, revised edition,
Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.

Guion, Susan G.; Amith, Jonathan D.; Doty, Christopher; Shport, Irina A.,
“Word-level prosody in Balsas Nahuatl: the origin, development, and acoustic
correlates of tone in a stress accent language,” n.d., in Publications,
Susan Guion Anderson
(http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~guion/Guion_Publications.htm; access: Jul. 29
2009).

Karttunen, Frances, An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl, 2a. ed., Norman,
University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.

Pittman, Richard Saunders, “A grammar of Tetelcingo Nahuatl,” in Language
(Linguistic Society of America), vol. 30, no. 1, part 2, Jan.-Mar. 1954, pp.
5-67.

Rincón, Antonio del, “Arte mexicana,” facsimile of the 1595 edition, in
Obras clásicas sobre la lengua náhuatl, digital ed., Ascensión Hernández de
León-Portilla, editor, Madrid, Fundación Histórica Tavera/Mapfre
Mutualidad/Digibis, 1998.


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