Phonology gaps (was: Language Sketch: Gogido)

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:20:26 +0200, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:
>
>> In the case of Okaikiar, I'm not consistent.  It has [t] and [d]  in
>> allophonic variation, likewise  [s] and [z], but there's no [g], only
>> [k].  I suspect this is massively unrealistic.
>
>There are languages, most famously perhaps varieties of Arabic, that have /t d
>k/ but no /g/ or [g]*. Given this, having a voiced allophone of /t/ but not of
>/k/ doesn't seem surprising in a language that doesn't distinguish phonemic
>voice.
Actually, I'd say it does. When there's a "gap" concerning /g/, it's usually
because the */g/ has gone somewhere. It's this way in Arabic (> /dZ/), and
also Finnish ( > /j/, /v/, null etc.) Or the gap could've been there for a
*long* time, but if Okaikiar [d] is simply an allophone of /t/, I'm fairly
sure that possibility can be ruled out.

It might be possible that *[g] > /k/ but I've never herd of any examples of
that kind of a thing. Phonation changes tend to be rather all-or-nothing;
German /v/ > /f/ without /z/ > /s/ is one counterexample I kno but that
might just as well be a chainshift with labials (ie. /v/ pushed by /w/ >
/v\/.) More clear-cut is Mongolian /p b t d/ > /ph p th t/ but no /k g/ >
/kh k/. Or, at least, no /g/ > /k/, I've no idea if /k/ > /x/ went thru an
aspirate or not. It's in any case in the wrong direction from what we want,
nor a merger...

....which reminds me, at which end should we expect aspirate gaps to fall? I
can't think of a single example with /f/ in place of expected /ph/, but a
handful with /kx/ or /x/ in place of expected /kh/, which seems a little
backwards at first glance. (Mongolian aside, this occurs at least in various
southern Bantu languages.) Okay, let's see, distinguishing aspirates
requires reaching a higher subglottalic pressure than in tenuis stops... and
perhaps, with a smaller (more posterior) oral cavity to pressurize, reaching
a certain pressure difference requires more finer-tuned pulmonic action. But
who's to say /kh/ and /ph/ need an equal amount of extra pressure? Or maybe
that's just it; a similar extra diaphragm gesture will produce much more
aspiration for /kh/ than /ph/, which is then prone to be interpreted as /kx/?

I dunno really, I'm just winging this. :)

John Vertical

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