Re: Putting the J in Sleep

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> > In Samoan [t] and [k] are "free" allophones of one phoneme.
> > The choice between them depends on perceived social intimacy
> > or distance between interlocutors.  Historically there was a
> > sound change -- I don't remember in what direction -- which
> > got frozen and re-deployed halfway.
>
> I'll hazard this was the [t]>[k] change that affected much of Polynesian.
Indeed it is.  It's written "t".  When I was there in 1969 or so,
I asked a Samoan about it: he explained that [t] was mostly used when
talking to chiefs and much older people.  By now I wouldn't be
too surprised if [t] were entirely lost.

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