286 2.15.2. Notes
2.15.2. Notes
•
Aspiration occurs once on [t], once on [ts], and three times on [t b]. For [ts] and [tb], it only
occurs on tone 2. It occurs on tone 3 for [t]. However, unaspirated [ sb] also occurs on tone 2 a
few times. Aspiration is light and occurs infrequently, so is considered nonphonemic.
•
[t], [ts], and [ sb] are all phonemic. See
minimal pair set.
•
There are a few minimal pairs for [v] and [w]. In other data points, these two sounds are often allophones, with no apparent conditioning factors. Sometimes, the sound is something like a
mixture, [wv]. For this lect, however, they are both phonemic.
•
[ b] only occurs twice and [s] occurs numerous times. Both occurrences of [b] are before a front
vowel, whereas [s] only occurs once before a front vowel. [
b] is considered an allophone of [s]. See rule
below.
•
[h] only occurs three times and is considered an allophone of [x], simply being fricative to a lesser degree.
•
[ ¯] and [n] are both phonemic.
[ ¯] occurs several times, mostly before high front vowels, but before other vowels as well.
[n] also occurs before [i] on one lexical item See minimal pair
.
•
[j] occurs numerous times. [
I] only occurs four times and is considered a free variation allophone of [j].
•
[y] occurs only once, 102 ‘bedbug’ [ x=s7], but is considered phonemic. It is dissimilar from
[ju-], and it also occurs in some other Bouyei lects, though never frequently.
•
[pj] only occurs twice and is not considered phonemic. [pi] + Vvowel combinations also occur twice. If the degree of palatalization were stronger,
[pj] might be considered a separate phoneme, but the distinction between [pj] + V and [pi] + V is very slight.
•
[ fi] occurs on nine items: four of them before mid vowels. However, no [fh] + V combi-
nations are found. Although [ fi] could be considered to be fh underlyingly, since the
palatalization is fairly strong and bound, we consider it to have phonemic status.
•
[kw] occurs a number of times and the degree of labialization is significant. [ku] + V combinations occur on two lexical items.
[kw] could be considered to be [ku] underlyingly, but due to the strong degree of labialization, it is considered a separate phoneme.
•
[ Mv] occurs twice and [M] occurs on 10 lexical items, but never before [u] + V. Since the
labialization is strong, and since the item 15 ‘day’ [ Mv`:h1] has the proto-form Mv=m1, [Mv]
is considered phonemic.
•
[ fv] only occurs twice and [ft] + V occurs on three items. For the two labialized items, one
has a labialized proto-form; the other does not. The degree of labialization is not very strong on either item with [
fv], so it is considered to have a UR of [ft], and is not considered phonemic.
•
There are only two instances of [ ?]. They occur in items 37 ‘road’ [i?m0] and 38 ‘village’
[ fa?m3]. We treat these as anomalies.
[a:] occurs on 16 items and is phonemic. See minimal pair
sets between [a], [a:], and [ ].
2. Phonology of data points 287
•
[ H] occurs on nine items, all in the environment __C.
[i] also occurs in this environment six times. [
H] is definitely an allophone of [i], but [i] does not always change to [H] in the above environment. See
rule .
•
There is only one occurrence of [e] and it is viewed as an anomalous variation of [ D].
•
[ B] occurs on five items, while [o] occurs numerous times. However, there are three sets of
minimal pairs and the vowel quality distinction between the two vowels is significant. [
B] and [o] are seen to be separate phonemes. See minimal pairs
set.
•
The situation between [ T] and [u] is much the same as with [H] and [i].
[ T] occurs four times, all in the environment __Cstop.
[u] also occurs in that environment, but only three times. See rule
below.
•
[ X] only occurs on four lexical items, while [=] occurs numerous times, but the two sounds are
quite distinct. There are no perfect minimal pairs, but [ X] mostly occurs in the environment
__ and [ =] occurs several times in that environment as well. See
minimal pair .
2.15.3. Minimal pairs
Kategori