Re: THEORY: Reduction of final consonants

On 8/31/07, Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> wrote:
> 2007/8/31, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...>:
> > Just FWIW-- The South Sulawesi langs. of Indonesia allowed proto finals *t k
> > n N r l s, and probably *p m and maybe *G (> r mostly).
> >
> [snip much interesting info]
> >
> > James Matisoff had a nice name for the gradual loss of finals in SE Asian
> > langs-- "continuum of consonantal attrition"
> >
>
> All these variegated reductions of final consnoants is indeed
> intriguing, though I wonder what sort of new theory or classification
> might just possibly be derived from this data!
It is very common for languages to show a subset of contrasts in
particular environments. These environments include: word-final
position, syllable-final position and unstressed syllables. One idea
that some linguists are playing with to explain this is that since
these positions are not as acoustically salient, it isn't worth the
articulatory effort necessary to make a full set of contrasts
available, so some "cost-cutting" measures are introduced which reduce
the number or complexity of potential articulatory configurations. In
word-/syllable-final position these "cost-cutting" measures include:

* reducing the number of possible laryngeal states (i.e. voicing,
aspiration, glottalization)

This is seen in Korean (as Katya pointed out), which neutralizes the
distinction between aspirated, "tense", and plain voiceless obstruents
to just plain obstruents. This is also seen in German which
neutralizes the voicing distinction in syllable-final position (though
there are some instrumental studies which show that there may still be
a barely perceptible distinction in this position).

* reducing the number of possible points of articulation

This seems to be the one at issue in this thread. Languages which
neutralize point of articuation contrasts generally do so in favor of
coronals. A variant of this allows multiple points of articulation but
no "complex" articulations like labialized or palatalized consonants.
Syllable-final place of articulation may also be limited so that
cross-syllable clusters must agree in place of articulation (mp, Nk,
st, etc). Japanese and Shoshoni are like this.

* reducing the number of possible manners of articulation

It may be that a language will allow multiple places of articulation
in syllable-final position, but will only allow, say, nasals, or
nasals and approximants.

Dirk