<OT> [Fwd: 13.3174, Qs: Optimality Theory, Spread of Place Features]

[Dan Everett]

Thanks, Loren, for posting Dave's message. Mamainde is spoken about 600
miles or so south of Piraha and is unrelated to Piraha. However, there
*is* a process in Piraha similar to the one Dave mentions.

In my MA thesis (back in the buggy days) and in my grammar of Piraha in
the Handbook of Amazonian Languages, I mention that /h/ + /i/ or /u/ is
often (and especially in singing) realized as k. For example, the negative
word, hiaba 'no' is often pronounced as kaba. And the word huaga
(orthographically hoaga) 'nevertheless' can be pronounced as kwaga or
koga.

I analyzed this [k] as resulting from the conjunction of the features
[back], from the /h/, and [high], from the vowel. The labialization in the
case of /u/ is then free to connect to either the resultant k, producing
kwaga or the vowel, changing a to o.

Haven't thought about this for quite some time, but this still seems
right. So the Piraha process looks somewhat similar to Mamainde.

Perhaps someone on one of these lists will have seen something similar.

Thanks again, Dave, for posting this.

Dan


**************************************************************

Daniel L. Everett
Professor of Phonetics and Phonology
University of Manchester
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dan.everett@man.ac.uk
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