Re: TECH: Sound Change program

Carsten Becker wrote:
> On Tuesday 12 April 2005 22:34 CEST, Paul Bennett wrote:
>
>  > $C > $Ch / _$V+h
>  > h > $0 / $Ch$V+_
Doesn't the 2nd rule delete a final h after aspirating the intital C? (That
wasn't in the original formulation IIRC. I'm unfamiliar with this particular
notation, however-- and may be misreading)
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>
> BTW, what would be the rule to insert [delete] a stop after
> a nasal of the same POA as the nasal? I mean something like
> n/nd/_[+front] or vice versa. Just more general,
> [+nasal]/[+nasal][+stop_with_same_POA]/_[+front].
>
In standard Generative Phon. notation:

Inserting: (using "a" for "alpha", i.e. any set of features, but identical
in the segments involved):

[+nas aF] --> [+nas aF][+stop aF]/___[whatever; I don't see how +front would
be a relevant env.-- if you mean "before a front vowel" that's odd.

Another way, though rewriting 0 is/was dis-favored(1):
0 --> [+stop aF]/[+nas aF]___[whatever]
-----------------------------------

Deletion:
[+stop aF] > 0/[+nas aF]___[whatever]

This is very likely to proceed in two stages (the first of which is actually
attested in langs. of my acquaintance):

1. assimilation
[+stop (+voi) aF] > [+nas aF] /[+nas aF]__[...]

2. deletion of successive identical segments:

[+nas aF] > 0 / [+nas aF]__[...]

(Or even, if you consider your N+C as a unit phoneme, say [+stop +nas], then
very simply [+stop] > 0 /[__ +nas], so mb > m, nd > n etc.-- however, in
those langs. where NC might be considered units, the usual change is NC > C)


Rule 2 could be made more general so as to simplify all geminate C or
identical vowel sequences; or even more sweeping, to eliminate a (first or
second) C or V in _any_ CC or VV sequence.
-----------------------------------

(1) But sometimes there's just no way around it; you have to rewrite 0, e.g.
in cases where an epenthetic segment is inserted (think Engl. "intrusive r",
unless you're going to say that /-r/ is present in the underlying form of
e.g "idea"); Buginese, very oddly, inserts a /w/ between identical vowel
sequences across morpheme boundary (only a-a, e-e and i-i are affected;
u/o+a/i/e trivially so).

mélli 'buy', + -i '3sg' > mélliwi 'he buys'
bóla 'house' + -e 'def' + -e 'this' > bolaéwe 'this house'
míta 'see' + -a? '1sg' > mítawa? 'I see'