Re: THEORY: Semivowels

On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Eric Christopherson wrote:
> > Interesting... what English words do you pronounce with [j_0]? I've never
> > heard of it.
>
> Words like "human", "huge", etc., which have /h/ followed by /ju/, thus
> "human" = [j_0um@n]  (note: I wasn't thinking of those words in my last
> response).
>
        Actually, from what I've read (and heard), [j_0] is a pretty
consistent allophone of /j/ when preceded by an aspirated stop, as in
putrid (= [p_hj_0uwtrid]) or cute (= [k_hj_0uwt]).  [w_0] seems to vary
in a similar way (along with [r_0] where [r] is retroflex blalala and
[l_0]), as demonstrated by words like quick (= [k_hw_0Ik]) or twin (=
[t_hw_0In]).  (these examples were taken from my linguistics 100 book,
btw.)
        Speaking of voiceless things that usually aren't voiceless, I'm
considering putting a rule (or, at least, a dialectical variation) into
Doraya phonology that devoices vowels when they're between two voiceless
consonant sounds (a la Mokilese), which would do all sorts of cool
things like:

        _tye'eska_ 'have put up for the night' [tje:ska] -> _tyehska_
[tje_0ska]
        _se'ekes_ 'dear son' [se:kes] -> _sehkehs_ [se_0ke_0s]

        And then, of course, later on in the language's evolution, the
voiceless vowels would get elided and with the help of a little
palatalization, my pretty mostly CV Doraya becomes a veritable Georgian:

        _tyehska_ [tje_0ska] -> _tshska_ [tSska]
        _sehkehs_ [se_0ke_0s] -> _sks_ [sks]

        ... or not.  As you can tell, I'm enjoying my first few weeks of
linguistics instruction at Berkeley. :)

Back to homework,
Adam
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