Re: Syllabic consonants (was: Re: Beek)

Nik Taylor wrote:
> There are two underlying phonemes, /m/ and /m=/.  /m/ becomes [m=] when
> required by phonetic rules, but underlying /m=/ *never* becomes
> non-syllabic.  Thus, the form realized as ['m=ta] is underlyingly
> /'m=ta/, but the form realized as [m='ta] is underlyingly /'mta/.
>
> So, when you add emi-, you get a minimal pair between [emi'm=ta] and
> [emim'ta].
To make it worse, you could have minimal pairs that are homophonous in
their dictionary form, e.g., in addition to /'m=ta/ vs. /'mta/, you
could have:

/m='ta/ = [m='ta] -> /emim='ta/ = [emim='ta]
/'mta/ =  [m='ta] -> /emi'mta/ = [emim'ta]

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