74 that Irish palatalization as it interacts with lenition and nasal place assimilation can be adequately
described only by a representation in which secondary vowel place features are structurally independent of primary consonantal features. In the examples given by Ní Chiosáin 1994, the concept of vowel place as
independent of the primary consonantal feature more clearly represents secondary palatalization as a feature added to the primary articulation, which does not change the primary articulation features. In the
articulator models, however, the secondary vowel place features are shown as structurally dependent on primary consonantal features. These models would indicate that palatalization is an integral part of the
primary consonant, rather than, as the Irish data show, independent of the primary consonant.
In Isthmus Mixe, secondary palatalization is not caused by the immediate phonetic environment and as such is better represented as a feature added to the primary consonant as in Hume’s model, and thus not
dependent on the primary consonantal features as in Sagey’s model. Although not explicitly described, Hume’s model will also accommodate glottal place as the major articulator and oral place as the minor
articulator, such as is required by the Isthmus Mixe data.
5.5.1 The vowel-place model applied to Isthmus Mixe data
In present-day Isthmus Mixe, the segmental vowel that spreads the palatalization feature to the consonant in Hume’s model figure 5.6 is no longer part of the language; the remnant of this vowel is secondary
palatalization, described here as a vocalic node with the vowel-place feature of coronal [cor]. When linked to consonants, this vowel-place feature [cor] results in a secondary articulation of palatalization see
section 4.1; when linked to vowels it results in the occurrence of the umlauted fronted allophones section 4.6. In order to be able to link the one feature, which represents a morpheme in most cases, to a
single consonant or a consonant cluster and to the adjacent vowels, the vowel-place feature [cor] is best shown on a separate tier from the segmental phonemes.
A tree diagram figure 5.7 representing the word
j
-ka πık [k
j
a ÿπık] ‘her banana’ is adapted from the model in
Clements and Hume 1995:292, with a vocalic node on a separate tier, linked to the place nodes of both the consonant and the adjacent vowel. In the constriction model of Clements and Hume 1995:292,
features or nodes that occur on the same line are on the same tier. Thus, in the representation in figure 5.7, the place nodes of both the consonant k and the vowel a are on the same tier. It is this tier, then, to which
the vocalic node links by means of a universal association convention UAC. Since the vocalic node of the prefix morpheme of secondary palatalization cannot cross the association line of the vocalic node of the
vowel, the effects of secondary palatalization are blocked from the consonant that follows the vowel. Thus, the initial consonant of
ka πık is palatalized, and the fronted allophone of the vowel occurs, but the final k
of the word is not affected.
75 prefix
morpheme stem
morpheme
j
- k a
πı k
| |
|
root root
root
| |
|
oral cavity oral cavity
oral cavity [cont]
C-place C-place C-place
|
vocalic vocalic
aperture V-place
V-place
| | [open]
[cor] [dorsal]
[dorsal] [dorsal]
Figure 5.7. Representation of
j
-ka πık [k
j
a ÿπık] ‘her banana.’
Another word-initial example of secondary palatalization occurs when the first- and second-person object marker, consisting of the secondary palatalization feature as an autosegmental feature and the
phoneme ¾ attach to the initial syllable of a verb, as in 7. As ¾ is attached to the beginning of the verb,
two consonants occur as a word-initial cluster and the autosegmental feature causes secondary palatalization of both consonants as well as fronting of the following vowel.
7 n‚w
Úπ»j ‘to know’
j
-¾-n‚w Úπ»j [¾
j
n
j
ÚÿwÚÿπ»j] ‘[he] knew me’ By the UAC, the autosegmental feature is associated to the initial consonant of the stem, which in this case
is the linear part of the prefix, ¾-, spreads to the following consonant, then to the following vowel, where
further spread is blocked by the vocalic association line. The palatalization autosegment that manifests a person marker i.e.
j
- ‘third person’ and
j
-¾- ‘first and second person object’ always attaches word initially. Since all Isthmus Mixe nouns and verbs begin with
one consonant followed by one vowel nucleus, the autosegment-bearing units are always one consonant followed by one vowel when marked by
j
- ‘third person’, and two consonants followed by one vowel when marked by
j
-¾- ‘first and second person object’. In addition to secondary palatalization of word-initial segments, word-final consonant clusters and
adjacent vowels may also be palatalized by a clause-type marker in Isthmus Mixe see section 4.6.6. In the case of the verb word-final autosegment palatalization that is the direct-transitive clause marker, the pattern
of attachment is the same as for the word-initial attachment, following the UAC, however the spread is bidirectional, since the clitic vowel that follows the suffix is also affected. In example 8,
j
-i¾-aN-p-
j
~‚ [Ð
j
i ÿ¾aÿm
j
b
j
Úÿ] ‘he wanted to see [him]’ the waveform and spectrogram are shown in section 4, figure 4.16,
j
- ‘3P’; i¾ ‘to see’ –aN ‘
DESIDERATIVE
’; -p ‘nonconjunct clause marker’; -
j
‘direct-transitive’; ~‚ ‘
DIR
’ the four word-final linear phonemes are palatalized by a single vocalic feature.
8 i¾-aN ‘to want to see’
j
-Ði¾-aN-p-
j
~‚ [Ð
j
i ÿ¾aÿm
j
b
j
Úÿ] ‘he wanted to see [him]’
76 These examples in Isthmus Mixe illustrate the need for a theory that adequately describes the effects
of one feature secondary palatalization, representing a morpheme, on two to four segments of a word. As described by Burquest 1998:243, “In summary, Autosegmental Phonology correctly expresses the fact
that some specific phonological features have more than a single segment as their domain….”
By utilizing the autosegmental model, the vocalic tier that represents palatalization in Isthmus Mixe is linked to the morphemic level of the language and is seen not simply as an interesting phonological
process, but also as an important part of the morphology. In addition, because secondary palatalization usually represents a morpheme in Isthmus Mixe, a discussion of mutation processes follows.
5.6 Mutation processes
