Series shifts and mergers in the obstruent phonology of Tahltan (Northern Athabaskan)
Date
2021
Authors
Alderete, John
Blenkiron, Amber
Thompson, Judy (Edōsdi)
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Linguistic Discovery
Abstract
A survey was conducted to investigate the development of the Proto-Athabaskan obstruent series, *ts/tš/tšr/k, into present day Tahltan. Results from seven native speakers and quantitative analysis of a larger corpus establish tθ/ts/ts/tš as the standard obstruent system, alongside three alternate systems that relate to independently motivated historical changes. These findings support the long-held view that differences in the obstruent reflexes do not reflect deep phonological differences among Northern Athabaskan languages, but instead represent areal influences and patterns of individual variation in a highly dynamic language network.
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Citation
Alderete, J., Blenkiron, A., & Edōsdi. (2021). Series shifts and mergers in the obstruent phonology of Tahltan (Northern Athabaskan). Linguistic Discovery, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1349/ps1.1537-0852.a.515