Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories
A number of authors have examined consonant alternations in Inuit (e.g. Thalbitzer (1904), Ulving (1953), Kaplan (1982), (1985)) and the related phenomena of fortition and lenition in Yupik. Voiceless stops and voiced continuants regularly alternate in Inuit dialects.While most of these alternations...
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Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto
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ftunitorontoojs:oai:jps.library.utoronto.ca:article/6528 2023-05-15T16:07:15+02:00 Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories Compton, Richard 2022-05-07 application/pdf https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528 eng eng Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528/3496 https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528 Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics; Generals Papers 1718-3510 1705-8619 Contrast Inuit Inuktitut Eskimo Consonants Consonant Alternations Consonant Inventories Lenition Fortition Continuant Continuants Yupik Greenlandic info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion GP 2022 ftunitorontoojs 2022-05-08T17:25:26Z A number of authors have examined consonant alternations in Inuit (e.g. Thalbitzer (1904), Ulving (1953), Kaplan (1982), (1985)) and the related phenomena of fortition and lenition in Yupik. Voiceless stops and voiced continuants regularly alternate in Inuit dialects.While most of these alternations, such as those between /p/ and /v/, could be explained as the spread or insertion of the features [VOICE] and [CONTINUANT], there exist some puzzling alternations, such as that between /t/ and /j/ in Eastern Inuit. This alternation appears to be more complicated than the mere addition of voicing and frication, which we would expect to yield [ð]. Why is there a change of place of articulation? It would be favourable if this /t/~/j/ alternation could be explained as part of the larger pattern of stop-fricative alternations. However, it is difficult to imagine a single phonological rule that would subsume the /t/~/j/ alternation.I propose that feature underspecification can be used to unify these alternations,both within individual dialects and across all dialects. In particular, I propose thatDresher (2002)’s Successive Division Algorithm can be used to create contrastive feature hierarchies to assign underspecified contrastive feature specifications to the phonemes in these dialects. Furthermore, I will argue that for all dialects these alternations center on the contrastive feature [CONTINUANT]; the feature [CONTINUANT] appears to be the underlying contrastive feature responsible for the (voiceless) stop – (voiced) continuant alternations across all dialects. While other (non-contrastive) approaches would need to specify different rules for the different alternations, particularly the /t/~/j/ alternation in Eastern dialects (and between /t/ and the other reflexes of Proto-Eskimo *ð in other dialects), my proposal can unify the alternations; stops alternate with their contrastively [+CONTINUANT] counterparts across all dialects. Conversely, I argue that in all dialects /t/alternates with the least contrastively specified continuant (i.e. a continuant unmarked for place of articulation). Languages and dialects differ in terms of how they implement these underspecified representations. Article in Journal/Newspaper eskimo* greenlandic inuit inuktitut Yupik University of Toronto: Journal Publishing Services |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Toronto: Journal Publishing Services |
op_collection_id |
ftunitorontoojs |
language |
English |
topic |
Contrast Inuit Inuktitut Eskimo Consonants Consonant Alternations Consonant Inventories Lenition Fortition Continuant Continuants Yupik Greenlandic |
spellingShingle |
Contrast Inuit Inuktitut Eskimo Consonants Consonant Alternations Consonant Inventories Lenition Fortition Continuant Continuants Yupik Greenlandic Compton, Richard Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
topic_facet |
Contrast Inuit Inuktitut Eskimo Consonants Consonant Alternations Consonant Inventories Lenition Fortition Continuant Continuants Yupik Greenlandic |
description |
A number of authors have examined consonant alternations in Inuit (e.g. Thalbitzer (1904), Ulving (1953), Kaplan (1982), (1985)) and the related phenomena of fortition and lenition in Yupik. Voiceless stops and voiced continuants regularly alternate in Inuit dialects.While most of these alternations, such as those between /p/ and /v/, could be explained as the spread or insertion of the features [VOICE] and [CONTINUANT], there exist some puzzling alternations, such as that between /t/ and /j/ in Eastern Inuit. This alternation appears to be more complicated than the mere addition of voicing and frication, which we would expect to yield [ð]. Why is there a change of place of articulation? It would be favourable if this /t/~/j/ alternation could be explained as part of the larger pattern of stop-fricative alternations. However, it is difficult to imagine a single phonological rule that would subsume the /t/~/j/ alternation.I propose that feature underspecification can be used to unify these alternations,both within individual dialects and across all dialects. In particular, I propose thatDresher (2002)’s Successive Division Algorithm can be used to create contrastive feature hierarchies to assign underspecified contrastive feature specifications to the phonemes in these dialects. Furthermore, I will argue that for all dialects these alternations center on the contrastive feature [CONTINUANT]; the feature [CONTINUANT] appears to be the underlying contrastive feature responsible for the (voiceless) stop – (voiced) continuant alternations across all dialects. While other (non-contrastive) approaches would need to specify different rules for the different alternations, particularly the /t/~/j/ alternation in Eastern dialects (and between /t/ and the other reflexes of Proto-Eskimo *ð in other dialects), my proposal can unify the alternations; stops alternate with their contrastively [+CONTINUANT] counterparts across all dialects. Conversely, I argue that in all dialects /t/alternates with the least contrastively specified continuant (i.e. a continuant unmarked for place of articulation). Languages and dialects differ in terms of how they implement these underspecified representations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Compton, Richard |
author_facet |
Compton, Richard |
author_sort |
Compton, Richard |
title |
Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
title_short |
Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
title_full |
Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
title_fullStr |
Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
title_full_unstemmed |
Contrast in Inuit Consonant Inventories |
title_sort |
contrast in inuit consonant inventories |
publisher |
Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528 |
genre |
eskimo* greenlandic inuit inuktitut Yupik |
genre_facet |
eskimo* greenlandic inuit inuktitut Yupik |
op_source |
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics; Generals Papers 1718-3510 1705-8619 |
op_relation |
https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528/3496 https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6528 |
_version_ |
1766403316589264896 |