LINGUIST List 11.560

Mon Mar 13 2000

Qs: Stress Neutralization,Pharyngeal Dissimilation

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Sharon Peperkamp, Neutralization of stress contrasts
2. MaryAnn Cockerill, Dissimilation of pharyngealized consonants

Does anybody know of languages in which primary stress contrasts get
neutralized at the (beginning or) end of some phrasal domain? In such
languages, two lexical items that differ only in the location of their main
stress would become homophonous at some phrasal edge.

I will post a summary of replies.

Thanks in advance,

Sharon Peperkamp
Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique
Paris

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my query about ejective
dissimilation. I'll have a summary up shortly. Now I have an additional
question about similar processes applying to pharyngealized
consonants (nontoleration of consecutive pharyngealized segments, loss of
pharyngealization when more than one are in a word, etc.). Note that I am
interested not in the pharyngeal consonants proper, but in consonants with
a secondary pharyngeal articulation. Also, I am looking for _non-Arabic_
examples. I suspect there may be some such in the Caucasian languages but
haven't been able to find an example myself. If anyone knows of such
processes, I'd be much obliged if you could drop me a line about them.
Please send replies to cockerilfas.harvard.edu

Thanks so much,

MaryAnn