Does anyone know of attainable references for Australian languages analysed as having only a voices stop series?
The picture I've got is that a good starting point for the analysis of the stop systems of Australian languages lacking a MOA contrast for their stops is that these are underlyingly obstruents just defined for their place of articulation. Depending from the language the stops will then be allophonically unvoiced, voiced or fricativised to varying extents.
Wei Lo (2010) (ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/alumni%20senior%20essays/Justin%20Wei%20Lo.pdf) gives the following basis for an alternative analysis of languages lacking a stop series contrast when we assume the language to have an underlying stop mode of articulation:
Quote:
In languages with most stops phonetically voiced, as in Yidiny, we would likely draw the the conclusion that in such a language the allophones [p, b, β] would all present /b/ instead of /p/. Each language in Australia would be able to choose their normative articulation in this way.
Dixon's
Australian Languages also gives the following short and general statement for correlations between the stop POA and voicing:
Quote:
There is in some languages a strong tendency for the apico-postalveolar stop to have a voiced articulation, while the other stops are generally voiceless. See, for example, Hercus (1994: 37) on Arabana/Wangkangurru: 'intervocalic ploisives are unvoiced except for the retroflex rd, which is always voiced'. For Yinjtjiparnrti Wordick (1982: 11) reports that all consonants except for rt (and sometimes rr) 'are pronounced as if they were geminate (doubled) in medial position between vowels'.
Not all stops can be expected to follow the same analyses.
Nortaneous wrote:
Wikipedia lists aɾiakɾe for k-less men's speech, so either that's an error or there are still voiceless stops there. It may be that some /tʃ/ are retained too. Anyone have a PDF of The Amazonian Languages?
I don't have a pdf but do have a paper copy. Here's the main paragraph describing the men's and women's speeches in Karajá (emphasis mine):
Quote:
Another phonological peculiarity of Karajá is the systematic differentiation of the phonological shape of words between men's and women's speech. Men's speech regularly lacks the velar stops present in the speech of women, as well as the instances of the voiceless alveo-palatal affricate that are historically derived from velar and stops palatalized by a preceding i. As a consequence of the dropping of the velar and alveo-palatal consonants, several vowel contractions may result, thus making the shape of the words and sentences uttered by men more distinct from those pronounced by the women. Even borrowings from Portuguese are subject to the dropping of the velar stop.
Here "regularly" has to be understood as "typically but not always". The table related to this discussion includes not only men's
aɾiakɾe for women's
kaɾitʃakɾe but also men's
aɾihoɔɗekɾe for women's
kaɾihokɔɗekɾe. There's no question that also the men's speech has /k/ as a phoneme, it's just much rarer than in women's speech.
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