[PapuanLanguages] Debuccalization in Papuan and An languages?

[Fanny Cottet]

Dear Alexandra, 

 

Thanks for your answer and these references. 

 

I know that debuccalization is common as a diachronic process but in
synchrony it does not seem so common (O’Brien, 2010). And that is this type of
allophonic variation I am interested in. I am also precisely looking at
languages of New Guinea and would like to find cases of An and Papuan languages which have the same phenomenon. 

 

Mbaham is spoken in the Bomberai peninsula, in West Papua. 

 

All the best,

Fanny. 


> From: alexandra.aikhenvald at jcu.edu.au
> To: fanny_cottet at hotmail.com
> Subject: RE: [PapuanLanguages] Debuccalization in Papuan and An languages?
> Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:26:32 +0000
> 
> Dear Fanny (if I may)
> 
> Thanks for your query. 
> Lenition from k to a glottal stop or h is not so rare (it is found in many AN languages, including Boumaa Fijian, have a look at Dixon's grammar 1988). It is cross-linguistically well-attested; see Hock's 1991 on principles of historical linguistics.
> 
> K/H allophony is attested in Yelogu/Kaunga (Ndu); I am yet to check this though.
> 
> S becoming h: this is attested in many languages, including Semitic; again, see Hock. This is also an instance of lenition.
> 
> Where is Mbaham spoken?
> 
> Are you currently working on Sko? This is a remarkable family; we could talk more about this.
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Alexandra
> 
> Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, PhD, DLitt, FAHA
> Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow
> Director of the Language and Culture Research Centre
> The Cairns Institute Building (D3-036), James Cook University
> PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
> http://www.jcu.edu.au/sass/staff/JCUPRD_043649.html
>  mobile 0400 305315, office 61-7-40421117
> fax 61-7-4042 1880  http//http://www.aikhenvaldlinguistics.com
> https://plone.jcu.edu.au/researchatjcu/research/lcrc
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au [papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au] on behalf of Fanny Cottet [fanny_cottet at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 29 August 2013 11:58 PM
> To: papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au
> Subject: [PapuanLanguages] Debuccalization in Papuan and An languages?
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> 
> 
> Would you be
> aware of any Papuan or Austronesian languages where there is an allophonic
> variation between any segment and a glottal stop or a glottal fricative [h] or
> [ɦ] (i.e. a debuccalization process)?
> 
> 
> 
> In Mbaham,
> intervocalic /s/ becomes [h]. Iha also has this type of allophonic variation.
> In Skou, /k/ becomes [h] intervocalically (also true for some proto-forms in
> the language). Apart from these three languages, I have not found it in any
> other language I looked at. It seems like quite a rare phenomenon.
> 
> 
> 
> If you have
> already encountered this type of lenition, could you please let me know? That
> would be helpful!
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks a lot.
> 
> Fanny Cottet.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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