35 1984:178. There are no known palatalization processes in present-day Tyap and Jju causing the
secondary articulation of palatalization in these languages C. McKinney: 2002 pc. In addition to the secondary articulations of palatalization in Tyap and Jju, N. McKinney 1990:257
states: “there is allophonic palatalization before front vowels… ” which is defined as primary palatalization in this study. Examples
52
include: tsop [tsop] ‘a hook’ as compared to ‘t ¾i [t¾i] ‘return cut a farming
term’; dzop [dzop] ‘investigate’ and d Yi [dYi] a noun class particle N. McKinney 1990:256. In this
type of process, primary palatalization results in palato-alveolar consonants.
3.5 Palatalization in Mesoamerican languages
Primary palatalization occurs in many Mesoamerican languages, some of which are included in the languages mentioned in Bhat 1974 e.g. Tepehuan, Zoque, and in descriptions of individual
Mesoamerican languages by other authors, including Central Pame Berthiaume 2000, Gibson 1956, Mayan Chontal Keller 1959, Justeson 1985, and Southeastern Tepehuan Willett 1985.
In an areal-typological description of middle American languages, Yasugi 1995:23 states that “secondary articulations are of two types; labialization and palatalization. … Palatalization is observed in
alveolar t
y
, palato-alveolar č
y
and velar k
y
, t
y
being more common than k
y
. č
y
is very rare.”
53
The phonemes t
y
and d
y
are listed in the database of phonological systems for most of the Zoque languages, including Copainalá Zoque 1995:215–216, for which data Yasugi cites Wonderly 1951 as the source. In
his description of Copainalá phonemes, Wonderly 1951:106 states that “t is alveolar: tatah father,” and “t
y
is a stop produced with the blade of the tongue in alveopalatal position and the tip down: t
y
atah his father.
” In a further explanation, Wonderly 1951:118 states: “When y precedes t in word initial clusters, metathesis occurs followed by palatalization of the t and loss of the y … .” The only phonemes with a
secondary articulation of palatalization shown in the Copainalá Zoque phoneme chart are t
y
and d
y
Wonderly 1951:105. Yasugi does not refer to secondary palatalization in the Mixe languages because they have never been
described as having palatalized consonants as phonemes. The palatalization is handled in other ways to avoid doubling the consonant inventory. For example, Crawford 1963 decides on a sequence of the
consonant plus y section 3.7.2, Hoogshagen 1984:4 refers to palatalized allophones of the consonants, and Van Haitsma [Dieterman] and Van Haitsma 1976:5–11 call [secondary] palatalization a
suprasegmental phoneme section 3.7.4. Since secondary palatalization is not on the linear phonemic level, it is not included in Yasugi’s survey.
In his survey of Mesoamerican languages, Suárez 1983 apparently uses the term palatalization to refer to secondary palatalization, as defined in this study. His reference to “Mixe from El Paraíso” is
authored by Van Haitsma [Dieterman] and Van Haitsma 1976: Palatalization as a feature affecting all members of a consonant system was
exemplified with Mixe from El Paraíso. Except for languages such as this, where palatalized consonants contrast with sequences Cj, linguists may differ in their
analysis of the same language as to whether the consonant is palatalized or a sequence Cj. Nevertheless, palatalized dentals may be said to occur in some
Otomanguean languages, Coastal Chontal and Uto-Aztecan languages; palatalized
52
The article by N. McKinney 1990 shows examples of minimal pairs of fortis vs. lenis stops and affricates; however one can see the effects of primary palatalization in some of the examples.
53
Yasugi 1995:12 uses the Americanist symbols which include using y for the palatal consonant and superscripted y following a consonant to indicate a palatalized consonant.
36 velars are uncommon some Mayan languages and only Amuzgo has both
[palatalized t] and [palatalized k] Suárez 1983:44.
3.6 Palatalization in Zoque languages
