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

Jesse Bangs:
> Hiksilipsi, my oft-revised tonal language, has /ps/ and /ks/
> as unit phonemes, along with the nasal occlusives /mp/ and /Nk/.  But
> there is no /ts/ or /nt/, as both of those have already been assimilated
> away.
>
> 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.)

--And.

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