Re: Stress and consonants

Katya wrote:
<<
I can't think of any examples of stress in natlangs affecting
pronunciation of consonants in a similar way, so I'm hoping someone
here will either be able to give me examples or tell me that I should
drop this idea if I care about realism. =)
 >>

Really?  Not a one?  Not even a phoneme like /t/ in a language
like...English?  ~:D

This doesn't apply to all dialects, but a good number of them
have the following realizations for /t/:

[t]
[t_h]
[4]

With some minor variations, you get the first after [s] and word-
finally; the second, word-initially.  The latter is dependent entirely
upon stress (and vowels).  Take the word "Gattaca", for instance.  If
you pronounce
it as in the movie, with stress on the first syllable, the /t/ is
pronounced [4].  Now let's say you wanted to make up a nonce
word to describe the movie as "Gattacular!"  Now the /t/ is
pronounced [t_h].  This is pretty much the exact same environment
as you describe, the only difference being where English has [4],
you have [s].  Now, I know that I've actually seen a language
where [t] and [s] are in complimentary distribution, but since
I can't think it up, just think about the process.  What's happening
is the main emphasis of the word is put before the /t/ (this is
not a scientific description), so the rest becomes kind of less
emphatic.  To make it flow more easily (and to make it more
like the vowels around), the segment becomes less stop-like
and more vowel-like, while still trying to retain its /t/-ness.  In
English, it achieves this by keeping the place of articulation,
and essentially shortening it until it becomes a tap, sacrificing
voicing*.  In your language, you keep the place of articulation
and the voicing and sacrifice the manner, making it a fricative.
I'd think of both sound changes as versions of the same change.

[*] There's now phonetic evidence that suggests, among other
things, that there is a voicing difference between the /d/ tap
and the /t/ tap.  Go fig.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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