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the obstruent but when combined with sonorant consonants the glottal fricative appears before the sonorant. These types of combinations in many languages are considered aspirated or pre-aspirated consonants
respectively. The group of phonemes which participate in these combinations is somewhat more limited than the one which combined with the glottal stops. It does not include simple fricatives or approximants.
Again, since the co-occurrence patterns are different for the obstruent clusters versus the sonorant clusters, I discuss the two groups separately.
3.4.3.3.1 Obstruents with h
Obstruent phonemes which are followed by h are usually expressed phonetically as the release of the first member of the cluster followed by a segment of high velocity air. While there is often a very
breathy release, it is sometimes a release which simply involves a delay in the voice onset time of the nucleus with little audible friction.
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The following vowel is either completely modal or it begins somewhat breathy, gradually becoming more modal as the nucleus progresses. The clusters in this group include: th,
kh, ts ︢h and tʃ︢h.
Table 3-22 below lists examples of the obstruents followed by glottal fricatives which co-occur with oral vowels. Across the top row of the table the vowels are listed. The obstruent-h cluster is listed
down the left column. Preference is given to monosyllabic examples; however, when none is available, multisyllabic examples are employed if possible. Stressed syllables of multisyllabic words are underlined.
Table 3-22 Obstruent – h clusters with oral vowels
Cluster i
ɛ a
o u
th thi˦
‘round’ thɛ˦˩
‘breed’ tha
˩ts︢ɛ˩ ‘new’
tho˩ ‘air’
thu˧ts︢ɛ˦ ‘burns’
ts︢h ts︢hi˦
‘thin’ ts︢hɛ˩
‘gourd’ ts︢ha˦˥
‘badger’ ts︢hu˥
‘toasted’ tʃ︢h
ʧ︢hi˩ ‘soursop’
tʃ︢hɛ˦˩ ‘charity’
tʃ︢a˦˩wa˩ ‘grasshopper’
ʧ︢ho˩˦ ‘egg’
tʃ︢hu˦ja˧ ‘sew’
kh khi˥
‘he jumps’ khe˦ndu˥
‘unties’ kha˧
‘skunk’ kho˧˩
‘with’ khu˧ndu˩
‘gourd’
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In the simple phoneme, when h or ʔ is not present, the nucleus begins immediately following the
release of the phoneme with no voice onset delay.
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There is almost complete data coverage in the table above. Each obstruent clustered with h occurs with each vowel – including o, with the exception of ts
︢ho. Recall from §3.3.3 that none of these obstruents co-occur with o when they are not in clusters; however, the simple h does co-occur with o.
Also, the ɛ only rarely occurred with tʃ︢, but there is no restriction when it is involved in the tʃ︢h
cluster. These co-occurrence patterns are displayed in the schematized table below. If the combination is attested, the cell is shaded. The only exception is the
t ʃ︢ɛ combination which is rare and is marked as such
with a diagonal line. The numbers 1-4 indicate gaps in the occurrence of the simple obstruents which do not occur in the clustered data.
Table 3-23 Comparison of h-clusters vs. simple obstruents with oral vowels
h-Obstruent with oral vowels Simple Obstruent with oral vowels
Cluster i
ɛ a
o u
Consonant i
ɛ a
o u
th t
1 ts︢h
ts︢ tʃ︢h
tʃ︢ 2
3 kh
k 4
Recall that h co-occurs with all oral vowels. The co-occurrence patterns line up more closely with h than with the ‘dominant’ member of the cluster. The presence of the h adjacent to the nucleus licenses the o
to occur as well as the t
ʃ︢ɛ. The clusters also appear with nasal vowels as is demonstrated in table 3-24 below. The clusters
appear down the left column and the vowel is listed across the top. The stressed syllable of multisyllabic words is underlined.
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Table 3-24 Obstruent–h clusters with nasal vowels
Cluster ĩ
ɛ̃ ã
õ ũ
th thĩ ˦˥
‘there are’ thɛ̃˥˧
‘forehead’ thãĩ˧
‘thick’ nde˩˧thũ˦˧
‘nose’ ts︢h
ts︢hĩũ˩ ‘tobacco’
ts︢hũ˥ ‘kicks’
tʃ︢h ma˩tʃ︢ɛ̃˧
‘occupy oneself with’
ʧ︢hã˧˩ ‘yellow
plum’ ʧ︢hũ˩˧
‘woman’ kh
khĩ˥ ‘many’
khɛ̃˥ ‘pulls’
khã˧ ‘he fights’
ts︢a˧khũ˦˥ ‘fears’
As expected because of the less common availability of the nasal vowels, there are more gaps in the available data. Although the co-occurrence of obstruent-h clusters with nasal vowels is not as
complete as it was for oral vowels, there are still more examples of nasal vowels with the clusters than there were with the simple obstruents. Table 3-25 provides a side by side schematized comparison of which
co-occurrence patterns are attested. When an example is available, the cell is shaded. In Table 3-25, the numbers 1-5 indicate co-occurrences which do not occur with the simple obstruents, but do occur with the
h-obstruent clusters.
Table 3-25 Comparison of h-clusters vs. simple obstruents with nasal vowels
Obstruent-h clusters with nasal vowels Simple Obstruent with nasal vowels
Cluster ĩ
ɛ̃ ã
õ ũ
Consonan t
ĩ ɛ̃
ã õ
ũ th
t 1
2 ts︢h
ts︢ 3
tʃ︢h tʃ︢
4 kh
k 5
When the obstruents appear in the onset followed by h, there is a wider distribution with the nasal vowels than when the obstruents are not followed by h. There are five more combinations in the
clustered environment: i.e., while examples of thɛ̃, thã, ts︢hũ, tʃ︢hũ and khɛ̃ are all available,
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tɛ̃, tã, ts︢ũ, tʃ︢ũ and kɛ̃ never occur. If the h is in fact filling the second consonant slot of the syllable template this is easily explained since the vowels are therefore co-occurring adjacent to the h
which is more promiscuous than other obstruents.
3.4.3.3.2 Sonorants with h
