Re: OT sonority in Russian, was Re: syllables

Vladimir Vysotsky sikyal:

> JS Bangs wrote:
> > The general sonority goes obstruents, nasals, liquids, approximants,
> > vowels. Minimum sonority distance is 1.
> [...]
> > Russian /v/ acts like it was /w/--i.e. it is more sonorouss than /r/ or
> > /l/. Thus the sonority distance between the initial consonants of /tvoj/
> > "yours" is 3, not 0.
> [...]
> > You can add one extra segment to the beginning of a word that violates
> > sonority.  You can also add /s/ to the beginning of any sequence that
> > doesn't violate sonority (but not to the beginning of a sequence that
> > *does* violate sonority--see below).
> [...]
> > I think this covers it.
>
> You probably need to add "z" to the "s"-class, to account for words
> starting with <vz-> (<vzdox>, <vzdrognut'>), as well as <mzda>.
Yes, of course.

> But even then, your rules won't cover the cases when single-consonant
> prepositions <k>, <v>, <s> do not get the epenthetic vowel:
>
> <k vstreche> /kfstre-/, <v l'vinyj> /vl'vi-/, <s mneniem> /smne-/
/l'v/ is no sonority violation (since /v/ acts as a semivowel), so
/vl'lvi-/ is no problem, actually.

These other words were the bane of me back in the day. Are these actually
*pronounced* without the epenthetic vowel, or merely spelled without them?

The case of /smne-/ is especially bad, since it's exactly the same cluster
as the one forbidden in <so mnoj>. Does stress enter in here? Perhaps
unstressed syllables are given extra leeway.

Also, I forget--do we write say /k mne/ or /ko mne/?


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

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