Re: Stress and consonants

On 10/25/06, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> Now, I know that I've actually seen a language
> where [t] and [s] are in complimentary distribution
Niuean does that, at least historically -- /t/ is [t] before back
vowels, [s] before front vowels.

However, through loan words, there are now probably two separate
phonemes, since there are words with [t] before front vowels and ones
with [s] before back vowels.

(This sound change was in comparatively recent time, so some older
loan words shifted as well; in particular, the word for "tea" (the
drink) is [si:] (but spelled |ti|, with or without macron depending on
how careful you are with spelling).)

AFAIK, there was an affricate in the process; [t] went to [ts] before
it ended up at [s] before front vowels.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>