Re: Kalini Sapak bits (or How to buse the letter "X" ...)

Andreas Johansson wrote:
>John Cowan wrote:
>>I suggest swapping "q" and "x"; "x" then aligns with IPA, and "q" with
>>Fijian (sort of).
>>
>Sort of? What exactly does "q" mean in Fijian? We-ell, it just occured to
me
>that visually "q" isn't extremely far from lowercase eta, so I think I'll
go
>with your suggestion unless someone comes up with something even better.

In the standard, dictionary (Bau) dialect, "q" represents [Ng], prenasalized
voiced stop.  In some Fij. dialects, it's [g_w] or [Ng_w] (labio-velar).
Standard "g" is the velar nasal.  Similarly, "b" and "d" are voiced prenas.
stops; "dr" is [ndr] (trilled r, the -d- is probably just transitional in
this case)


>>>/yawal/ "star (ACC)" is ['jQwal]
>>>/yiwal/ "starrier" is ['jywal]
>>>
>>>/qayak/ "horse" is ['xEjak]
>>>/quyaku/ "(he) rides" is ['xyjaku]

I find these (and the other snipped exs.) quite natural, even to be
expected.  Similar things happened in Kash historical phonology.