Re: Stress and consonants

Katya wrote:
>
> Maybe you can help me by telling me whether or not this is plausible.
>
..
> If the word /tati/ had stress on the last syllable, it would be realized
> as:
>
> [ta.ti]
>
> If the word /tati/ had stress on the first syllable, however, it would
> be realized as:
>
> [ta.si]
>
I find that particular case entirely reasonable-- though on quick reading I
assumed that the /i/ was also a conditioning factor, since t >
fricative/affricate/sibilant before i or front V in general is very common.
But it's also possible before other vowels too, though stress is not usually
a factor, I think. Jap. /t,d/ > [ts,dz] before /u/ IIRC.

An Indonesian language of my acquaintance pre-aspirates stops in post-stress
position-- /'paka/ > ['pa(h)ka]; that could easily lead to a fricative
pronunciation like ['paxa].

But there's no reason why stress couldn't condition such changes; as someone
pointed out, it happened in the development of Germanic.

I toyed with a similar idea for the development of Gwr, but couldn't decide
if stop > fricative before or after the stress, so gave up on it. (I did
keep both as irregular/dialect features.) In most cases, I think such
changes happen mostly in intervocalic position; what did you plan to do
about, say, initial unstressed position-- that is, would /ta'ti/ > [sa'ti]?
That's probably not found in any natlang, but in a conlang, it could be an
interesting departure from realism, and nihil obstat, IMHO :-))

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