60 especially the raised second formants. This same process occurs when a suffix beginning with a plosive
follows a morpheme ending in j as in
j
-n‚maj-kump‚ [n
j
Úÿmaÿg
j
u mb‚] ‘he said [it] again’
j
- ‘third person’;
n‚maj ‘to say [it]’; kump‚ ‘again’.
78
Figure 4.17. [a
ÿ»g
j
Úÿ] from morpheme final j and morpheme initial k. If the consonant that follows the coda j in a compound is already voiced, palatalization of the voiced
consonant occurs and j is absorbed, for example [ka ÿm
j
u k] kaj-muk ‘eat together’ kaj ‘to eat’; muk
‘together’.
79
Theoretical implications of this process are discussed in section 5.3.
4.5 Frequency counts of Isthmus Mixe vowels
In the case study of Text A see section 2.1 and Appendix, the 300 vowels were analyzed in detail as described in “Secondary Palatalization and Changes in Vowel Formants in Isthmus Mixe” Dieterman
2001. A summary is given here.
The frequency counts of the six vowel qualities in the language, namely i ‚ u e o a, vary considerably
table 4.4 and figure 4.18. Each vowel quality is divided by those adjacent to plain consonants, the upper section of the bar figure 4.18, and those adjacent to palatalized consonants, the lower section of the bar.
In referring to vowels adjacent to palatalized consonants, there may be a palatalized consonant preceding the vowel, following the vowel, or both.
80
Of the 300 vowels analyzed, just over half of the vowels are adjacent to palatalized consonants 51. Given that all of the vowels in the 100 second sample of
continuous narrative text were included in the analysis, it appears that the effects of palatalization are a major phonetic feature of the language.
78
Although the examples show plosives voiced between vowels, which might be attributed to that voicing rule see section 2.3.2.1, the same process occurs when the clause marker suffix -p follows a verb ending in j, as in
‚»t s
j
jo πj-p
t s
j
am [ Úÿ»ds
j
jo ππb
j
t s
j
a ÿm] ‘Im walking now’ ‚ıts
j
‘I’; jo πj ‘to walk’; -p ‘clause marker’; ts
j
am ‘now’.
79
There is the possibility of a modification of this process related to the primary stress of the clause. It has been observed that when the syllable of the morpheme ending in j is under primary stress, the j is retained, even while
palatalizing and voicing the following plosive. However, there are too few examples of this phenomenon in the texts under consideration to posit this as a general pattern.
80
The consonant phoneme j is grouped with the palatalized consonants, regardless of the occurrence of the autosegmental morpheme for this particular study of the effects of palatalization on 300 vowels.
61 Table 4.4
Isthmus Mixe Vowel Frequencies in Text A Vowel N
Plain Palatalized ‚ 115 66
49 a 101
29 72
i 37 24 13
u 19 14
5 e 14
6 8
o 14 8
6 Totals:
300 147 49
153 51
o e
u i
a +
130 120
110 100
90 80
70 60
50 40
30 20
10 plain
palatalized
Figure 4.18. Isthmus Mixe vowel frequencies in Text A.
4.6 The effects of palatalization on Isthmus Mixe vowels 4.6.1 Procedures
