Re: Putting the J in Sleep

Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:


> 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.

                                   Andreas

Reply