the university of chicago the phonology and ... - SIL International

For the analysis in this dissertation, I will assume the interpretation of
labialization and palatalization argued for by Olson & Schrag (1997). However, in the
spirit of Chao’s (1934) basic observation, I admit that this choice is not clear-cut:
[G]iven the sounds of a language, there are usually more than one possible way of
reducing them to a system of phonemes, and ... these different systems or
solutions are not simply correct or incorrect, but may be regarded only as being
good or bad for various purposes. (p. 363)
4.3 Distribution of labialization and palatalization
The distribution of labialization and palatalization with respect to preceding
consonants and following vowels was discussed in Section 4.1 above. Here, I discuss the
co-occurrence of more than one secondary articulation within a word.
There are cases in the world’s languages where both labialization and
palatalization occur in the same syllable. Ladefoged (1982: 211) gives evidence from Twi
(Niger-Congo, Ghana). Both secondary articulations occur in the name of the language,
resulting in the semi-vowel []. The name Twi, then, is pronounced [J E]. In my corpus of
data, there are no cases of labialization and palatalization occurring on the same syllable.
There are three cases in my corpus of more than one syllable in a single word
containing a secondary articulation:
(8) a. == == == == ‘small’
b. CM=(CM= CM=(CM= CM=(CM= CM=(CM= ‘gizzard’
c. C>=== C>=== C>=== C>=== ‘November’
In all three words, the two syllables containing the secondary articulation are
identical (except for the tones in 8b). Also, in 8a, the word may in fact be a case of
reduplication. There are no attested cases in my corpus in which both labialization and
palatalization occur in the same word. If further research reveals this gap to be a general
phenomenon in the language, that would be evidence that a secondary articulation has the
67