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

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Friday, November 16, 2001, 0:02
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.