LINGUIST List 7.1501

Fri Oct 25 1996

Sum: Epenthesis after final consonant clusters

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

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1. Krisztina Polgardi, Sum: Epenthesis after final consonant clusters

Dear Linguists,

Some weeks ago I posted a query asking for references on languages
that allow single word-final consonants, but employ epenthesis
following a word-final consonant cluster.

Hereby I'd like to thanks those who replied:

Glenn Ayres <gayresns.inter.edu>
Andries W Coetzee <KLSAWCpuknet.puk.ac.za>
James Harris <jharrisMIT.EDU>
Robert F. Kemp <amd07rs1.rrz.Uni-Koeln.DE>
John E. Koontz <koontzboulder.nist.gov>
Stavros Macrakis <macrakisosf.org>
Dilworth_Parkinsonbyu.edu
Carsten Peust <cpeustgwdg.de>
Gillian Ramchand <gcramermine.ox.ac.uk>
Mark Verhijde <Mark.M.Verhijdelet.ruu.nl>

The languages that were suggested are the following:

Arabic
Aramic
Bengali
Catalan
Coptic
French
German
Ixil
Tiberian Hebrew
Winnebago

>From these, only the Nebaj dialect of Ixil seems to exactly fit my
question (cf. Glenn Ayres (1991) La gramatica ixil. Plumsock
Mesoamerican Studies, South Woodstock, Vermont, U.S.A. Pages 15-20.),
and maybe Bengali and Winnebago, but of these I haven't managed to
find a detailed enough description to be able to tell for sure.

Catalan and French belong to this group as well, only here epenthesis
only applies to a subset of possible clusters, namely those that can
form a complex onset (or rather those that cannot form a coda-onset
cluster). In the other languages, epenthesis can optionally apply in
the middle of the cluster as well, indicating that the cluster is not
really genuine (i.e. in Government Phonological terms, the consonants
are separated from each other by an underlying empty nucleus).

Thanks again for your help!

Krisztina Polgardi

=====================================================
Krisztina Polgardi
Leiden University
Dept. of Linguistics / HIL
P.O.Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
tel. +31-71-5272205
=====================================================