Re: Language change that complicates the syllable structure

Staving Arnt Richard Johansen:
>What are some plausible diachronic processes that can expand the syllable
>structure of a language?
>
>
>I only know the history of one language that was mostly (C)V. That is
>Japanese. The only change in its syllable that I'm aware of, is the
>occasional loss of high vowels word-finally, thus creating a closed
>syllable ((C)VC). Are simple syllable structures really that stable? It
>would be intriguing if language change inevitably lead to a (C)V syllable
>structure, but given that most languages that exist today have more
>complicated syllable structures, that's not very plausible.
>

It's not just word finally - high vowels can be lost between between
unvoiced consonants, so, for example "hajimemashite" is usually pronounced
[hadZimemaSte:]. One idea that's plausible for forming clusters is loss of
unstressed vowels - for example, I have a pair of languages in which Wavol
(member of the tribe) becomes wavl (person). You might want to restrict
this to certain environments, for example between homoorganic consonants.
Another idea that's just occurred to me is that certain consonants could
eat certain vowels, eg [uw] -> [w], [ij] -> [j] , [ki] -> [tS], [ti] -> [S].

Pete