Funny W

[Rory M Larson]

>> I'm not as familiar as you and Bob are with the total distribution of
these
>> sets over Siouan.  Could you suggest some actual problems that would
>> challenge a nasally-released stop interpretation for *W and *R?

> Distributionally, I don't think nasally release stops are particularly
> common compared to prensalized stops.  Bob's example of forms like /ob/
> common compared to prensalized stops.  Bob's example of forms like /ob/
as
> [obm] and, hypothetically /el/ as [edn], are more common, but notice that
> these follow oral vowels, whereas *R and *W precede vowels, generally
oral
> ones.  In fact, with only a very few exceptions *R and *W are strictly
> word initial.

Alright, that sets up three considerations:

1. Nasally released stops are relatively rare (world-wide?);

2. Almost all *W and *R are word initial;

3. The vowel following *W or *R is usually oral.

I don't think the first is a problem.  We're dealing with a specific case,
not a probability.  World-wide, clicks are rare too, but that doesn't deter
their presence in Khoi-San.

Considerations 2 and 3 apply to any possible reconstruction.  It's probably
easiest to suppose that after *W and *R were established in the
proto-language, all word interior cases and all cases preceding a nasal
vowel merged with other phonemes, perhaps *w and *r or *p and *t.

Being rare and distinctive would be an advantage to preserving *W and *R
and keeping them from merging sporadically with other sets.  If, on the
other hand, they were pre-nasalized stops, then what would consistently
distinguish them in their reflex pattern from all the epenthetically
pre-nasalized interior stops following nasal vowels?  If the Dhegihan
positional *aWa' was actualized as *ampa' or *amba', why wouldn't the
interior consonant in 'day', *aN'pa or *aN'ba, have developed as *a'Wa ?

Consideration 3 is one that might raise a problem for the nasally released
stop model.  If the stop is released nasally, wouldn't we expect the
following vowel to be more likely nasal than oral?

My defense here would be that a nasally released stop is about the nasal
click, not the nasal sonority.  In a couple of previous postings, I
suggested that the stop and the nasal click itself may have been voiceless,
with the nasal opening quickly closed again before the main voicing of the
following vowel.  If the following vowel were nasal, however, nasality
would have extended from the click to the end of the vowel.  Voicing would
have followed nasality back to its beginning and into the stop, leaving the
stop itself as a rump prefix to what is now primarily a nasal consonant.
The rump is dropped, and we are left with m or n, which is presumably
construed as a nasal allomorph of *w or *r.  Thus, e.g.:

  Nasal           *NN
  Oral         TTTTTaaaaaa
  Laryngeal         VVVVVV

A nasally released stop before an oral vowel.  The nasal opening is brief,
and the nasal consonant is unvoiced.  The sequence is phonologically
unique, and fairly stable.

  Nasal           *NNNNNNN
  Oral         TTTTTaaaaaa
  Laryngeal         VVVVVV

A nasally released stop before a nasal vowel.  Nasalization is prolonged,
and mostly in synch with vocalization.

  Nasal           *NNNNNNN
  Oral         TTTTTaaaaaa
  Laryngeal       VVVVVVVV

Vocalization extends back to support the entire nasal sequence.  Now we
have a clear n sound preceded by a stop that has no purpose but to set up a
nasal click before the n that is replacing it in phonological prominence.

  Nasal         *NNNNNNN
  Oral         TTTaaaaaa
  Laryngeal     VVVVVVVV

The duration of the stop erodes to a bare nubbin to support the click,
allowing the word to be spoken more quickly.

  Nasal        NNNNNNNN
  Oral         TTaaaaaa
  Laryngeal    VVVVVVVV

The stop and the click finally disappear.  We are left with a bare n (or
nasalized *r).

Hence, it may be that placing a nasal vowel after a nasally released stop
will tend to destroy the stop and replace it with the corresponding nasal
consonant.  You might try pronouncing these sequences to test them.  My
sense is that a nasally released consonant before an oral vowel is about as
distinctive and stable as a glottalized stop, but that if you try it before
a nasal vowel the stop will tend to be replaced by the corresponding nasal
consonant.  If this is correct, then I think that that rule might account
for why *W and *R are seldom followed by nasal vowels.

Rory
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