Re: Lenition or Elision or What?

And Rosta wrote:
> Henrik Theiling, On 09/12/2005 15:46:
>
[snip]
> & Ray asks:
>
>>> 'Coalescence' is when a sequence of two segments fuses into a single
>>> segment. So the Senjecan phenomenon might be called 'coalescent
>>> synizesis' or 'synizetic coalescence'.
>>
>>
>> Um - excuse me if I seem a bit thick (I have a bit of a cold), but does
>> both synizesis and synaeresis imply coalescence by their very
>> definition. There seems to be a bit of redundancy here.
>
>
> The answer to Henrik & Ray is that there is both synizesis &
> coalescence: the i/u loses its syllabicity (= synizesis) and coalesces
> -- as a secondary articulation -- with the preceding consonant. Without
> coalescence, one would have simply [mj], [mw], and not the
> palatalized & labialized articulations. Hence my suggestion of the terms
> 'coalescent synizesis' or 'synizetic coalescence'.
Yep - you're absolutely right. Difficult to think straight with a bunged
up sinuses. I had misread the change of [mj] --> [m_j] and [mw] --> [m_w]

In fact, I wonder if Charlie's feature can really be called 'synizesis'
in the proper sense of the word, as the two vowels are not actually run
together. The original [i] and [u] do not even survive as semivowels!

I know the feature is triggered by having a high vowel before another
(low?) vowel, but the first vowel simply does not combine with the
second, as it surely should do in the case of synizesis.

For similar reasons, Mark's "approximantification" is not accurate
either, since there is no approximant. There is merely the labialization
or palatalization of the [m] (and presumably of any other consonant in
that position).

It seems to me that in fact there is _only_ coalescence: [mi] --> [m_j]
and [mu] --> [m_w].


I guess, because the coalescence is triggered by two vowels coming
together, it could be term 'synizetic coalescence' (but not IMO
coalescent synizesis).

--
Ray
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