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realizations according to their phonological context. In the Nataia, there are at least two types of phonological processes such as the following:
4.1.3.1 Aspiration
Voiceless oral stops are aspirated both in the initial position and in the medial position. The aspiration is clearly noticed with velar consonant sound [k],
alveolar consonant sound[t] and bilabial consonant sound [p]. Examples: [t] as in tepa t
h
əp
h
a ‘shoulder’, [p] as in pea p
h
ea ‘arrive’, and [k] as in ku’a k
h
u’ɑ ‘break down’ are aspirated. Also aspirated are the [t] as in ‘ate [at
h
e] ‘liver’, [k] as in eka [ək
h
a] ‘think’ and [p] as in sepa [səp
h
a] ‘eat’ vegetables. Aspiration occurs both in the initial position and in the medial position
because each of the three voiceless stops always becomes the onzet of the following nucleus.
4.1.3.2 Vowel Reduction
The vowel of a structural word which usually consists of one syllable tends to be reduced to schwa [ə] Djawanai, 1983: 119. In the Nataia, ne ‘already’, for
example, is reduced to nə and da ‘that ’ is reduced to də in phrases such as demu nə mai they already come, and ata də mai people who come. The
schwa [ə] which is usually very short never occurs in the last syllable of a morpheme.
After talking at great length about the individual vowel and consonant phonemes of Nataia, it is time to discuss how these sounds are organized to form
patterns. It is a matter of common knowledge, though, that sounds are organized into syllables and syllables are organized into words.
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The possible sequences of sounds in a syllable, Finegan asserts 2004: 126, differ from language to language and are limited within each language. As
illustrative examples, Finegan points to some Polynesian languages such as Samoan, Tahitian, and Hawaiian which have only CV and V syllables. Japanese,
the linguist ascertains, also allows syllables basically of the forms CV and V. What a pleasant surprise for the present writer to know that such simple
syllable structures are similar to those of Nataia, which also has only CV and V syllables. It is also worth noting that all the five languages have another unique
linguistic feature in common i.e., all their words always end in a vowel phoneme. This feature clearly indicates that they are vocalic languages, which do not tolerate
any consonant phonemes in the final position of their words. Learning a foreign language whose syllable structure differs from one’s native
tongue, Finegan asserts, speakers tend to impose the sequence constrains of their native syllables onto the foreign words. English words such as baseball and strike,
Finegan explains, have been borrowed by Japanese speakers as beesubooru and sutoraiku, forms that obey the sequence contraints of Japanese 2004: 128. In the
present writer’s observation, an English word such as royal ‘belonging to a king or queen’ Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 1974: 741
has been borrowed by Nataia speakers as roza ‘extravagant’, the form of which obeys the sequence constraints of Nataia. This simple illustrative example clearly
indicates that the vocalic nature of Nataia may become the first potential difficulty for a Nataia speaker in learning English phonology. Furthermore, the syllable
structure of Nataia which is mostly of CV type may become the second potential difficulty for a Nataia speaker in learning English phonology. The reason is that
