LINGUIST List 9.1149

Mon Aug 17 1998

Sum: Consonant Cluster [h]C

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Heli Harrikari, Consonant Cluster [h]C

A couple of months ago I posted a question concerning the word-medial
consonant cluster [h]C. I was especially interested in the connection
between the place of articulation and voicing.

The following people kindly answered my inquiry:

Dan Moonhawk Alford
Dirk Elzinga
Earl Herrick
Sean M. Witty

Thanks to all who answered!!!

Here is the summary of the answers I received.

1. Dirk Elzinga wrote:

Gosiute, a dialect of Shoshoni (Uto-Aztecan) has a phenomenon in which
voiceless [h] as the final segment of certain nouns completely
assimilates to the following voiceless consonant, which is the initial
consonant of the following morpheme. However, when a voiced consonant
follows [h], maintains its own features.

2. Earl Herrick wrote about [h] in English suggesting that [h] is
actually a voiceless vocoid homorganic to the following vocoid.

3. Sean Witty wrote as follows: 

In Korean consonant clusters C[h] and [h]C, the phoneme [h] is
realized as aspiration of the following or preceding consonant
suggesting that [h] is not a proper phoneme but rather an aspirated
'null' without the point or manner of articulation.

4. Finally, Dan Moonhawk Alford wrote about the Cheyenne language of
the Algonquian language family suggesting that [h] in [h]C clusters
could be, in fact, interpreted as a voiceless vowel.

Thanks again to everybody. My apologies if I misunderstood any of the
answers.


Heli Harrikari
Department of Linguistics
P.O.Box 4 (Keskuskatu 8)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland

e-mail: harrikarling.helsinki.fi