Vowel initial laryngeal consonants

T ABLE 6-2. Elicitation list for laryngeal fricatives in onsets and intervocalic positions H V V H V ɾhĩ́n ‘grandfather’ npʰæ̃́hæ̃ʔ ‘mat’ nhæ̌ ‘cough’ pæ̌hæ ‘he brings’ səlʰə́s ‘scissors’ kwə́hə ‘he finds’ hũ̌t͡s ‘he sets.hard’ npúhu ‘his chair’ hjə́ʔ ‘you’ pɑ́hɑwʔ ‘he watches’ Table 6-3 represents a morphological change that occurs on possessive 40 nouns that includes some laryngeal feature on the root. This can be seen on the unmarked form, which deletes when the possessive prefixes are attached. T ABLE 6-3. Morphological paradigms involving aspirated and glottalized consonants. U NMARKED 1 P ERS . S ING . 2 P ERS . S ING . 3 P ERS . S ING . npʰúhu nʰpúhu nʰpǔhu npúhu ‘chair’ npʰæ̃́hæ̃ʔ nʰpæ̃́hæ̃ʔ nʰpæ̃̌hæ̃ʔ npæ̃́hæ̃ʔ ‘straw mat’ nt͡s’ə́ʔ nʰsə́ʔ nʰsə̌ʔ nsə́ʔ ‘bean pot big’ nt͡s’ěʔ nʰsěʔ nʰséʔ nsěʔ ‘tooth’ For example, ‘chair’ has an aspirated voiceless bilabial stop on the root onset, but such aspiration is incompatible upon prefixation for possessor. The phonological reasons for this are covered in chapter 7 ‘Morphology’, but the data is included here to illustrate laryngeally complex consonants versus laryngeal consonants.

6.2.1 Vowel initial laryngeal consonants

The production of glottal stops and laryngeal fricatives involves a number of laryngeal mechanisms, which work together in a number of ways. Interestingly, although these segments only differ in the value of the phonological feature [continuant], the gestures required to produce each is somewhat more complicated. First, consider the production of a glottal stop in 1 and 2. 40 1 Pers. Sing. ‘first person singular’, 2 Pers. Sing. ‘second person singular, 3 Pers. Sing. ‘third person singular’. 1 ʔú ‘he, she, it’ a. breath state b. Adduction of arytenoids c. Full closure for ʔ d. Phonation for u Example 1a shows the larynx in a breath state. The arytenoid cartilages are wide apart allowing a maximum amount of air possible to pass through the glottis. In between this state and the production of a glottal stop the arytenoids are pulled together as the interarytenoid and lateral cricoarytenoid muscles contract 1b. This has the effect of closing the vocal folds. In order to completely shut-off the airflow for glottal stop production, we see in 1c that the arytenoids are now pulled forward to the thyroid cartilage with the thyroid arytenoids muscles, which also pulls the epiglottis into view by epiglottal sphynctering the bottom of 1c. Finally, in 1d we see the voicing for the post-glottal stop vowel. Notice that although the arytenoid cartilages are no longer pushed against the thyroid cartilage, they remain constricted to one another i.e. medial compression in order for phonation to take place. Here, the vocal folds are clearly seen, pressed uniformly together indicating modal voice. Another example of glottal stop production is given in 2 where the stop is between two modal voice segments, each comprising a syllable peak. The first peak is the syllabic nasal which is produced with modal voice. This is seen in 2a where the vocal folds are uniformly pressed together with constricted arytenoid cartilages. The glottal stop follows in 2b with the arytenoids pulled together as well as pulled forward to the thyroid cartilage. `Example 2c shows the following modal voice vowel in more or less an identical configuration as the modal voiced nasal in 2a. 2 mʔú ‘dried’ a. Phonation of m b. Full closure for ʔ c. Phonation for u The next example is that of a laryngeal fricative h. In 3 the laryngeal fricative onset is observed followed by a modal-voice glide. 3 hjə́ʔ ‘you’ a. Partial adduction of arytenoids for h b. Phonation for jə In example 3a, we see that the arytenoid cartilages are partially pressed together as the musculature works in tandem to bring the vocal folds in a closer proximity to one another without touching. This allows air pressure to build up, increasing the speed by which the air molecules pass by the vocal folds giving a noisy fricative sound. The arytenoid chink can be seen at the posterior end of the vocal folds, below the arytenoids. The production of modal voice in 3b includes bringing the arytenoids completely together in the typical medial compression configuration in order for the following vowel to be phonated.

6.2.2 Vowel medial laryngeal consonants