Examples:
(See Comments
for key to special characters used.) |
|
| fit’ + na |
‘finish + we’ |
fint’a --> finDa |
‘we finish’ |
| lit’ + na |
‘enter + we’ |
lint’a --> linDa |
‘we enter’ |
|
|
Conditions: |
|
Metathesis affects only coronals. When an ejective velar stop occurs before
/n/, metathesis fails to apply.
| nak’ + na |
‘put on + we’ |
nak’na |
*nank’a |
‘we put on’ |
|
|
Motivation: |
|
Perceptual Enhancement (for related discussion see Hume 1998):
Prevocalic position is a particularly favorable position for the realization
of stop consonants, given the presence of both a vowel transition and release
burst in this context. In preconsonantal position, on the other hand, no
audible release of the stop is present. Thus, shifting the ejective alveolar
stop to prevocalic position may strengthen the syntagmatic contrast
between the stop and contiguous nasal. In the case of nasals, anticipatory
coarticulation in the form of vowel nasalization on a preceding vowel provides
cues to the nasal's manner of articulation. |
|
Related information: |
|
Obstruent assimilation affects coronal obstruents followed by nasals:
| fid + na -->
finna |
*fidna |
‘we boast’ |
| gaalot + ni --> gaalonni |
*gaalotni |
‘camels NOM’ |
Implosivization changes /nt’/ to [nD]: only one lexical item
with [nt’] is observed in the language; all other sequences are [nD].
This is not simply a voicing process, since /nt/ does not change to [nd]:
| gan + ta |
‘deny + you’ |
ganta |
*ganda |
‘you deny’ |
|
|
Comments: |
|
Special Symbols:
D = implosive stop
Last updated: 3/19/2002
|
|
References: |
|
Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. The Role of Perceptibility in Consonant/Consonant
Metathesis. Proceedings of West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
17. 293-307.
Lloret-Romanyach, Maria-Rosa. 1988. Gemination and
vowel length in Oromo morphophonology. PhD. dissertation. Indiana
University.
|
