Re: An Introduction to C'ali: Phonology

Quoting julien eychenne <eychenne.j@...>:

> On Sun, 4 Aug 2002 23:59:24 -0500
> "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...> wrote:
>
>
> > C'ali's consonant inventory is very similar to Phaleran in some
> > respects. In both, the opposition between simple voicelessness
> > and aspiration is more salient than voicing and voicelessness,
> > and in both glottalization, labialization, and lateralization
> > are important distinguishing features.
>
> Then, can voiced consonants be found as phones ? If yes, wich series would
> they be variants of?
The VOT is quite low for the plain voiceless stops -- no
more than 10 ms, and occasionally voiced stops are not
unheard of. Between that and about 60 ms, native speakers
interpret the stop to be aspirated, and above 60 ms to be
affricated.

> >   Stops:
> >   p   t[   t   k   q   ?
> >   ph       th  kh
> >            t'  k'  q'
> >            th' kh'
> >            tw  kw  qw
> >            tl
> >
> >   Affricates and fricatives:
> >   pf  ts   tsh kx
> >       ts'  tsh'
> >            s   x       h
> >
> > (<tsh> here represents a postalveolar affricate.)
>
> Can /s/ be pronouced differently depending on the context ([s] -->[S]) or is
> it more a neutral form such as finish or spanish /s/? I particularly like the
> /t[/ ~/t/ opposition.
[S] is indeed an allophone of /s/, occuring before all
homosyllabic dorsal consonants, namely $_[k kh kw q
qw kx x] (glottalized consonants necessarily being
unclustered).

> Some phonological rules:
> >
> >  [-voice, +obstruent] --> C' / _? (i.e., becomes glottalized)
> >  [-voice, +obstruent] --> Ch / _h (i.e., becomes aspirated,
> >                                    where possible)
> >  [+high, +vocalic] --> [-high] / _ [uvular consonants]
>
> Are [+obstruent] and [+ vocalic] respectively equivalent to [- sonorant] and
> [+ syllabic] or is there any difference?
Indeed, they are.  I was very tired last night when I posted
it, and should have used the usual feature names.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier
Dept. of Linguistics  "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu
University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua
1010 E. 59th Street   eundum est, sed qua itur." -- Seneca
Chicago, IL 60637