LINGUIST List 10.854

Mon Jun 7 1999

Qs: Lentition/Fortition, Langs of Native California

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tobias Scheer, Lenition/Fortition
2. Andreas Kathol, Bibliographical information needed on California languages

we should like to submit the following query to the phonological community,
which aims at drawing the (exhaustive, if possible) typological picture of
lenition and fortition:

ceteris paribus, out of the five contexts

#__ Coda__ __.C __# V__V

that exhaust the logical possibilities for a consonant to occur in (let
aside the second member of a branching Onset),

WHICH ARE THE POSITIONS THAT TRIGGER LENITION/ FORTITION?

We are particularly interested in disjunctive contexts. For instance,
__{C,#} refers to two conexts in which a phonological process takes place,
to the exclusion of the three others {#__, Coda__, V__V}. This specific
disjunctive context is known as the Coda.
The full text of this query, which is available at (hopefully from Monday
7.6.1999, in any case as soon as possible)

http://ancilla.unice.fr/posfora.html

includes a table of all 31 logically possible combinations of the 5
positions a consonant can come to stand in, i.e. pairs of contexts,
triplets and quadriplets.
Our questions are:
1. among the language(s) you konw where the positional influence on
segments may be identified, in which of the 31 combinations (and to the
exclusion of the complementary set) does lenition/ fortition occur?
2. which are the predictions your theory makes in regard of lenition and
fortition? Which is the subset of those 31 combinations it predicts
lenition/ fortition may/ may not/ must occur in?
3. do you, does your theory predict implicational relationships between a
context X in which lenition/ fortition occurs and another context Y, in
which lenition/ fortition should/ may/ may not occur in case it is observed
in context X?

This query is posted in preparation of a conference on Lenition/ Fortition,
to be held in Nice/ France on 24-25 June 1999. All relevant information is
available at the above mentioned web-page.

We will issue a summary of data and opinions collected.
Please consult the full text at http://ancilla.unice.fr/posfora.html

Joaquim Brand\227o de Carvalho
Tobias Scheer
Philippe S\233g\233ral

In 1982, Scarecrow Press published the *Bibliography of the Languages 
of Native California* by William Bright. Since then a great deal more 
material has been published on the topic, and it seems high time for 
a revised edition to be published, electronically and/or in hardcopy. 
William Bright (Colorado), Victor Golla (Humboldt), and Andreas Kathol 
(Berkeley) are undertaking such a revision. Like the 1982 book, the 
new bibliography will extend beyond the borders of California to cover 
Klamath in Oregon, Yuman/Cochimi in Baja California and Arizona, and 
Numic all the way across the Great Plains, including Comanche in 
Oklahoma.

To help us with this undertaking, we're asking for bibliographical 
material from everyone who has published anything (including working 
papers, conference reports, etc.) on the languages of Native California.
Also to be included are MA theses and doctoral dissertations. Specifi- 
cally, we ask that you send your relevant bibliography listings to 
William Bright, who is coordinating the compilation. "Relevant" listings 
means any publication that includes substantive material on one or more 
Native languages of the area, even though the main topic of the publi-
cation may be broader; e.g., we want to include an article that contains 
Yurok data, though the article may be mainly about comparative Algic, 
or on a theoretical topic. Provide the fullest possible bibliographic 
information - with inclusive page numbers for articles, and total page 
numbers for books. Short abstracts are also welcome. It will be best 
if you can send your listing electronically, either by e-mail or on a 
diskette; but hardcopy is also accepted.

We are especially interested in materials prepared for practical use 
in Indian language education, under the auspices of tribal organizations,
local educational institutions, and individuals. If you have information
about such materials, whether or not you were personally involved in 
their preparation, please submit that also.

Please contact William Bright at <william.brightcolorado.edu> or at 
1625 Mariposa Ave., Boulder, CO 80302 (telephone: 303/444-4274, fax:
303/413-0017).