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The contrastive hierarchy in phonology 2009 Dresher.pdf - CUNY ...

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obstruent, not /k/: /h/ is not sonorant, not labial, not dorsal, and not dental<br />

(7.58). <strong>The</strong>refore, [s, z, S] /h/.<br />

(7.58) NZ Ma#ori <strong>contrastive</strong> specifications (Herd 2005)<br />

non-sonorant [sonorant]<br />

qp wo<br />

labial non-labial /m, w, n, r, N/<br />

ty ei<br />

/p/ /f/ non-dorsal [dorsal]<br />

ei g<br />

[dental] non-dental /k/<br />

g g<br />

/t/ /h/<br />

<strong>The</strong> different <strong>contrastive</strong> roles played by /h/ <strong>in</strong> these languages suggests<br />

that they have different ‘pattern alignments’, <strong>in</strong> Sapir’s terms, despite their very<br />

similar phonetic realizations. <strong>The</strong> differ<strong>in</strong>g status of /h/, as well as the presence<br />

of /t/ <strong>in</strong> NZ Ma#ori but not <strong>in</strong> Hawaiian, also account for the very different<br />

<strong>contrastive</strong> status of /k/ <strong>in</strong> each language: general default consonant <strong>in</strong><br />

Hawaiian, and dorsal obstruent <strong>in</strong> NZ Ma#ori.<br />

7.7.3. Summary<br />

As mentioned, loan <strong>phonology</strong> is a diverse phenomenon, and it is unlikely that a<br />

s<strong>in</strong>gle approach can account for all patterns of loanword adaptations. But it<br />

suffices for our purposes to show that there exists a class of cases <strong>in</strong> which loan<br />

<strong>phonology</strong> is sensitive to the <strong>contrastive</strong> structure of a language; <strong>in</strong> particular, to<br />

the <strong>contrastive</strong> feature <strong>hierarchy</strong>. <strong>The</strong> Polynesian examples discussed above<br />

provide a compell<strong>in</strong>g case of this type.<br />

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