Re: vowel harmony extension?

On Thu, 2 Nov 2000, Eric Christopherson wrote:

> Actually, now that I think of it, are you sure you've got that rule right?
> Things might have changed strangely since Old Japanese, but it seems to me
> the first consonant of the second word gets *voiced*, e.g.: *pito-pito >
> hitobito, *matu-pa > matsuba, *oo-tanuki > oodanuki.
Actually, you are refering to a different phenomenon. What you are
refering to is calle _rendaku_. Rendaku occurs: 1) in a compound; 2) with
native (or words felt to be Japanese). There are probably other
conditions as well, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. The
first consonant of the second word becomes voiced. Thus, kami 'paper' but
origami; kana 'character' but hiragana; etc.

What I was referring to was an older stage in the language where only one
voiced consonant was allowed in a word. If you look at native Japanese
(non-compound) words, you will see that they never have two voiced
consonants.

I have no idea how this voicing dissimilation interacted with rendaku, or
if they ever even co-existed. I should look that up when I find the time.

Marcus