Re: kinsi rorotan: dialects and script

Robert wrote:

<</k/ is pronounced [C] before /i/, /y/, and /u/, and [k] before
/a/, /e/, and /o/.>>

Wow.   How did that happen?   /k/ > [C] / _[u] seems like an unlikely sound
change to me.   Did [u] have some sort of an on-glide change beforehand?

I mean, the change is explicable, in that /k/ > [C] / _V [+high], but I just
can't see why that would ever happen for [u], and not, say, for [e].   [C] is
essentially the unvoiced, fricative version of [i], which is why things
palatalization and /h/ > [C] / _[i] happen.   And if you wanted to go further
along the scale, the voiceless stop version of [i] is [c].   Going to [u],
though, the stop version is [k].   What I mean is...

[i] > [j] > [J\]* > [C] > [c]

...equivalent to...

[u] > [w] > [G]** > [x]** > [k]**

*Is this the SAMPA for a voiced, palatal fricative?
**Technically, these last three should be labialized, too.

Anyway, the way I think about it, palatalization, or palatal-related changes
become less likely the further away they get from [i].   So, [i] is highly
like, [y] is likely, [I] and [Y] aren't unusual, and neither is [e], [E] and
[i-] are kind of getting questionable, [3] is highly questionable, and then
when you get out to [u-], [@] and [&], it's becoming more and more
unlikely--though [&] is the most likely of the three, I think.   So frontness
matters more than height, I'd think.   Or were you shooting for
dissimilation...?

-David

"imDeziZejDekp2wilDez ZejDekkinel..."
"You can celebrate anything you want..."
               -John Lennon

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