When is a Cluster not a Cluster?: A Northern East Cree Case Study 44 th Algonquian Conference, Oct 25 Ͳ28, 2012 Sarah Knee (Memorial University)
[email protected] Background :Two different kinds of clusters in NE Cree Type 1: Primary (Underlying) Clusters Type 2: Secondary (Derived) Clusters Orthography IPA Translation Orthography IPA Translation iskwâu [ࡁsk ࠧw] ‘woman’ tihchikâchâu [t ࡁht ࡚kat ࡚aw] ‘s/he kicks’ mishtikw [m ࡁ࡚t࠾kॎ] ‘tree’ pâyikushtâmitiniu [pay ࡁk࡚tamt ࡁnࡁw] ‘ninety’ nihpin [n ࡁhp ࡁn] ‘my lung’ ushîmishish [ࡡ࡚ im࡚࡚ ] ‘his/her younger sibling’ uskin [ࡡsk ࡁn] ‘his/her bone’ Ͳ maximally CC Ͳcan be many consonants in arow Ͳ first consonant is either [s, ࡚ ,h] Ͳfirst consonant can be awider variety of consonants Ͳ assumed to be underlying Ͳassumed to result from deletion (e.g., [pay ࡁk࡚tamt ࡁnࡁw] is underlyingly /pay ࡁkࡡ࡚tamࡁtࡁnࡁw/) Proposal: secondary clusters are CVC sequences that are produced with avowel that has been devocalized (shortened or weakened) to the point that it is not perceived. Two Kinds of Evidence : Evidence 1: Duck Evidence Evidence 2: Gestural Hiding Ͳ In many languages phonological vowel deletion has been Proposal :vowel gestures are ‘hidden’ by the gestures of adjacent reanalyzed as vowel devocalization –ashortening or weakening consonants process The study : Ͳ Devocalization has similar characteristics cross Ͳlinguistically Ͳ Investigate data for presence of aphonetic correlate of Ͳ NE Cree shares these characteristics gestural hiding: phonetic lengthening of consonants in Cross Ͳlinguistic characteristics* Shared with Algonquian?? secondary clusters 1. Prosodic Enviro. & • Metrically weak positions я Ͳ Icompared the relationship between the duration of C1 &C2 Vowel Type • Schwa &short/lax я in secondary clusters and CVC sequences in the word list • At least hi vowels я reading by NE Cree speaker Luci Bobbish ͲSalt 2.