Re: Lenition or Elision or What?

R A Brown wrote:


> caeruleancentaur wrote:
> > phenomenon.  I would imagine that the spelling "vyumba" indicates a
> > palatal consonant.
>
> I don't know why. I know of no evidence that |vy| indicates [v_j]; I
> have always understood that |vy| meant exactly what it indicated, namely
> [vj].
>From what I know, |vy| indeed means /vj/, since there is no phonemic
palatalization in Swahili. But for my Russian ears it sounds a bit like
[v;j] (that is, [v_jj]). Maybe it's an aberration, because it looks like in
Russian the opposition /(C)j/ ~ /(C;)j/ is realized with velarization of the
first member: |отъезд| /otjezd/ [@"t_GjEst] 'departure' ~ |братья| /brat;ja/
["brat_jj@] 'brothers' (Nom.pl.)

> > I do not know why this doesn't occur in all such situations.  E.g.
> > kiatu, shoe, and viatu, shoes!
>
> Or _kiazi_ 'potato' ~ _viatu_ potatoes.
kiazi ~ *VIAZI* !!!

> A natlang has to have exceptions   :-)
I think the word above was a typo.

Anyway, one can add _kiaga_ ~ _viaga_ 'agreement', _kiapo_ ~ _viapo_ 'oath',
_kielezo_ ~ _vielezo_ 'illustration', _kiini_ ~ _viini_ 'kernel', _kiopoo_ ~
_viopoo_ 'hook', _kiuno_ ~ _viuno_ 'thigh' etc.

> I suspect it depends at what at what stage these words entered the
> language, from what dialect etc.
I suspect this to be an effect of a glottal stop present earlier but now
lost.

-- Yitzik

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