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LINGUIST List 22.572

Wed Feb 02 2011

Sum: Velarisation/Pharyngealisation of Laterals

Editor for this issue: Danielle St. Jean <daniellelinguistlist.org>

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        1.     Daniela Müller , Velarisation/Pharyngealisation of Laterals
Message 1: Velarisation/Pharyngealisation of Laterals
Date: 02-Feb-2011
From: Daniela Müller <daniela.mulleruniv-tlse2.fr>
Subject: Velarisation/Pharyngealisation of Laterals
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Query for this summary posted in LINGUIST Issue: 22.85
About a month ago, I posted a query (LL 22.85) regarding instances of
/l/-velarisation, -uvularisation, or –pharyngealisation and subsequent
developments of those sounds outside of the Indo-European
languages. I’d like to thank Bonny Sands, Dmitry Ganenkov, Mark
Jones, Feda Al-Tamimi, Islam Youssef, Daniel L. Newman, and Georg
Boehm for sharing references, thoughts, and information with me.

Bonny Sands and Dmitry Ganenkov both pointed me to Caucasian
languages where lateral affricates and fricatives alternate or develop
into a variety of dorsally-articulated affricates which may or may not
have a lateral release. Starostin 2007, recommended by Dmitry
Ganenkov, is a book-length treatment of reconstructions of laterals in
all of the Caucasian languages.

The reverse process, namely acquisition of laterality by a variety of
dorsally-articulated affricates (pulmonic and ejective) and clicks, has
been observed by Bonny Sands in a 2007 study on Dahalo (Cushitic),
ǂHoan (Ju-ǂHoan), and ǁXegwi (!Ui).

Feda Al-Tamimi, Islam Youssef, Daniel Newman, and Georg Boehm all
pointed me to the emphatic (pharyngealised) lateral of Arabic which
seems to be (marginally) phonemic in at least some dialects such as
Jordanian or Iraqi Arabic.

Finally, Mark Jones offered some thoughts on the default pronunciation
of /l/, specifically as far as degree of velarisation is concerned. I will
discuss these questions in my thesis, together with their consequences
for the representation of the lateral(s), mostly in a gestural framework.

Daniela Müller
Universitat de Tolosa 2 – Lo Miralh & Ruprecht-Karls-Universität
Heidelberg

References:

Ferguson, Charles A. (1956), "The emphatic l in Arabic". In Language
32:3; 446-452.

Sands, Bonny (2007), "The contribution of language documentation to
historical phonology". In Austin, Peter K., Oliver Bond & David Nathan
(eds.), Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and
Linguistic Theory. London: SOAS; 209-219.

Starostin, Sergei (2007 [1994]), A North-Caucasian Etymological
Dictionary: preface. Ann Arbor: Caravan books. (online version:
http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/caucpref.pdf, accessed 12/01/2011)

Trubetzkoy, Nikolaj Sergevic (1922), "Les consonnes latérales des
langues caucasiques-septentrionales". In Bulletin de la Société de
linguistique de Paris 23 ; 184-204.
Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
                            Phonology
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