Devoicing or strengthening of long obstruents in Greenlandic
It is a characteristic feature of Modern West Greenlandicthat long nonnasal consonants are voiceless,whereas these have short voiced counterparts in thecase of continuants. Seen in isolation this distributionis suggestive of spontaneous devoicing oflong obstruents, but on the basis of evidence fromd...
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of Phonetics University of Copenhagen
1986
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| Online Access: | https://tidsskrift.dk/ARIPUC/article/view/131871 |
| Summary: | It is a characteristic feature of Modern West Greenlandicthat long nonnasal consonants are voiceless,whereas these have short voiced counterparts in thecase of continuants. Seen in isolation this distributionis suggestive of spontaneous devoicing oflong obstruents, but on the basis of evidence fromdialects and from old spellings it is suggested thatthere may be an old "strengthening" process (segmentalization) underlying this modern feature ofvoicelessness. |
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