Re: Tallefkeul: tones and whatnot

Thomas R. Wier sikyal:

> > --- In conlang@y..., Andreas Johansson <and_yo@H...> wrote:
> >
> > > One day or another, I'm going to understand how [mbr] is easier to
> > > pronounce than [mr].
>
> Some recent work I've seen on cross-syllabic clusters in Altaic
> languages seems to indicate that there is a marked tendency for
> there to be a large gap on the sonority scale between the coda
> and the following onset.  [m] and [r] are close to one another
> on the sonority scale, and therefore inserting a [b], very low in
> sonority, would increase the sonority contour. (I think this all
> results from Obligatory Contour Principle.)
Eh? I thought that the Obligatory Contour Principle was the principle that
forbade identical adjacent tones at the tone tier in underlying
representations. What you're talking about is something else that I can't
remember either right now--Optimal Sonority Curve, or something like that.
Perhaps I'm misremembering, though.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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