Re: [COMMENT] Coatlalopeuh Phonology/Orthography

Shreyas Sampat sikyal:

> p [b p^h]    t [d t^h]    k |c| [g k^h]
> s [S f]      S |x| [C]    x |h| [C^h h]
> l            L |ll|       K |tl|
I'm having trouble remembering what [L] is.  And [f] as an allophone of
/s/!  Very interesting.

> w |o*|       r [4]        j |e*|
>
> *: When syllable-initial, |e, o| become |hi, hu|, |ih, uh| when
> syllable-final.
So is that why the |peoh| was [buh]?

> Stress:
> Primary stress falls on the character vowel.  (Roots are composed of
> two-or-three consonants and a vowel; the vowel appears in every form.)  This
Hey!  I have a language with those same properties--three consonants and a
vowel are specified, everything else being morphological.  Funny that you
came up with the same thing.  I do like this idea--it's an interesting
twist on the standard tri-consonantal format.

> Alternations:
> When a stop and /j/ come in contact (in contact meaning separated by
> nothing, not even a syllable boundary), the stop becomes voiced and the /j/
> is elided.
This is very interesting, and I like it.  It's unexpected and creative,
but still quite believable.

> When a stop and /w/ come in contact, the stop becomes aspirated and the /w/
> elided.
This strikes me as less plausible.  Do you have an explanation?  I can't
see how labialization would come to be realized as aspiration.  I would
also have to see some morphemics to believe this.  If I observed the
allophones [p p_h b], it would never occur to me to analyze them as /p pw
pj/ unless there were solid morphological or phonotactic evidence to
support it.

> /s/+/j/ > [S^j]
> /s/+/w/ > [f]
> /S/+/j/ > [C]
> /x/+/j/ > [C^h]
> /x/+/w/ > [h]
> /r/ > [4] in clusters
These are all very nice.

Basically, I would like to see some morphology and some more examples, and
maybe some justification for the cool but surprising consonant
alternations.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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