Re: Hiksilipsi complex segments (was: RE: [CONLANG] me again

Jesse:
> And Rosta sikyal:
>
> I'll respond to And here, since he had basically the same argument as
> John, but was nice enough to change the subject line :-).
>
> > > The analysis of these as single phonemes is motivated by the fact that
> > > Hiksilipsi allows no word-final consonants, which implies no consonants in
> > > coda positions--yet words such as /apsu/ are perfectly fine.  The
> > > syllabification must therefore be /a.psu/.  Looking at other words reveals
> > > that the set of allowable onset clusters is quite limited--in fact,
> > > restricted to just four phonetic clusters: [ps ks mp Nk].  The best
> > > analysis, then, and the one I support, is to regard these as unit
> > > phonemes, and to say that Hiksilipsi has a strict prohibition against
> > > onset clusters and coda consonants.
> >
> > The second argument is clear, but I don't understand the first.
> > There are well-known languages (e.g. Italian) that have no final
> > consonants but that do have coda consonants. (And there are languages,
> > e.g. Wolof, iirc, that have word-final consonants but no coda
> > consonants.)
>
> How, then, do we ever arrive at the conclusion that there are no coda
> consonants for a language that might allow onset clusters?  I suppose that
> the Maximal Onset Principle will help here--if the only CC's are CC's that
> also occur initially, then no syllabification will ever include a coda
> consonant.
>
> And this is the situation in Hiksilipsi.  The only consonant clusters
> (other than those involving the glides [j] and [w], which are
> exceptional), are [ps ks mp Nk], which can occur initially and medially.
> The most natural analysis, IMHO, is to say that these represent onset
> clusters in each case and, given the peculiar distribution of these
> sounds, to say that they're unit phonemes.
I buy your phonological analysis of Hiksilipsi. It was that first
argument that I didn't get (and still don't, but never mind).

> BTW, I decided today to write Hiksilipsi with a syllabary :-), and drew up
> some preliminary glyphs.
Can you clarify for me the relation between Hiks and Yivrindil? Are these
two completely unrelated conlangs?

--And.

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