Series shifts and mergers in the obstruent phonology of Tahltan (Northern Athabaskan)*

• Published in: Linguistic Discovery
• Main Authors: John Alderete, Amber Blenkiron, (Judy Thompson) Edōsdi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Dartmouth College Library 2021
• Subjects: athabascan; contact; series mergers; sound change; affricates; tahltan; Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar; P101-410; Tahltan; Athabascan; Northern Athabaskan
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.515; https://doaj.org/article/e93b4ca3e7844a9eb8356feabbf7db3d

A survey was conducted to investigate the development of the Proto-Athabaskan obstruent series, *ts/tš/tšr/k, into present day Tahltan. Results from seven native speakers and quantitative analysis of a larger corpus establish tθ/ts/ts/tš as the standard obstruent system, alongside three alternate systems that relate to independently motivated historical changes. These findings support the long-held view that differences in the obstruent reflexes do not reflect deep phonological differences among Northern Athabaskan languages, but instead represent areal influences and patterns of individual variation in a highly dynamic language network.