Re: NATLANG: Phonotactics

>From: Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>
>
>Bunch of questions:
Try to answer a few...........
>
>(1) What's a good book on phonotactics likely to be available and
>accessible
>to me?
How about Payne's "Describing Morphosyntax"?  There's also an old book (publ
by Intl. Jnl of Amer.Linguistics in the 50s IIRC) by Charles Hockett that
lists the (phonemic) systems of a great many languages, but I don't recall
whether he gets into syllable structures.
>
>ObConLang; Whose and which conlangs have what syllable-structures?
>
>AFMCL: I have (C)(C)V(V)(C)(C)
Kash is basically (C)VCV(C), with permitted initial onset
Vl.stop[-palatal]+r only; if we call "mb, nd, Ng" systematic vd.stops, then
medial clusters _all stops[-pal.]+r.  No final clusters, only /ptkmnNrls/
may occur finally.  Initial/medial /yi-/ is not permitted (OK across a
morpheme boundary as a graphic convention e.g. /SendZi+i/ 'genitive of the
name Shenji' written "shenjiyi"); [w] occurs only in the writing system, in
the sequence a_u ~ u_[aeio]
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Different bunch of questions.
>
>(a) "Action-at-a-distance"....
>Is the "liquid counter-harmony" in Spanish an example?  Spanish seems to
>follow a "rule" (well, mostly) that two liquids in a root can't both be
>rhotics and
>can't both be "lambdics" (lateral liquids).  (Or am I all wet there?)
True to some extent I think, e.g. pelegrino < peregrinu-, arbol < arbor-
etc.   Maybe a holdover from Latin? viz. treatment of the -alis ~ -aris
suffix? Several INdonesian langs. of my acquaintance disallow /rVr.../,
dissimilating to /lVr.../

There's also haplology-- elimination of (near-)identical syllables in a
sequence
>
>(b) How common is it for languages to have clusters that never occur except
>across a morpheme-boundary?
Probably quite common.  Kash is an example, any final C + various CV
suffixes (some undergo sandhi); Indonesian too, any final C + nya suffix, or
initial prefix ber- + any permitted initial C (though rare -rC- clusters do
occur within base morphemes)

>
>(e) Borrowing.
>Suppose a language wants to borrow a word with, for instance, C1C2C3 as,
>for instance, an onset-cluster; but the language currently contains no such
>onset-cluster.  Under what circumstances are its speakers likely to borrow
>the
>word without breaking up or modifying the foreign cluster?
Indonesian, which disallows initial clusters, tends to insert a schwa into
borrowed C1C2(C3) Dutch clusters, but at least C1C2 borrowed clusters are
pronounceable by many (education level??)  The same can happen with
/#s@[stop].../ or /#stop+@r.../ in native words esp. polysyllables (where
the s-C- is not stressed), e.g seperempat /se+per+'empat/ (one+prx+four)
'one fourth/quarter' often pronounced [s@'pr@mpat]--['spr....] is rarer,
because that /se-/ prefix is important.

>(f) Is it true that, in almost every language that has both onsets and
>codas,
>almost every consonant both can be an onset and can be a coda?
There are often restrictions on codas/finals.
>
>What consonants are likeliest to be allowed in codas but not in onsets?
Nasals?