2.Consonant Alternation 2.1.A descriptive sketch
I will first outline the segmental inventory of Nivkh.
2.1 Consonantal inventory of Nivkh
(I) aspirated plosives p t c k q
(II) non-aspirated plosives p t c k q
(III) voiceless fricatives f r s x
(IV) voiced fricatives v r 34 z
nasals m n
lateral l
glides j h
2.2 Vowels
i u
e o
a
Consonant Alternation (henceforth CA) is a phonological process which changes the feature [continuant] in obstruents when they are placed in certain phonological and morphosyntactic contexts. Descriptively, CA consists of two processes: spirantization, in which a plosive changes to a fricative, and hardening, in which a fricative changes to a plosive. Laryngeal features are also relevant since aspirated plosives only alternate with voiceless fricatives and non-aspirated plosives with voiced fricatives, i.e. the alternation is strictly between the obstruents of row (I) and (III), or (II) and (IV).35, 36
2.3 Spirantization: (I) > (III), (II) > (IV)
a. (I) > (III) maca [r]om (< tom) ‘fat of a seal’
seal fat
coli []os (< qos ) ‘neck of a reindeer neck reindeer’
b. (II) > (IV) peq [v]x (< px ) ‘chicken soup’
chicken soup
maca [z]us (< cus) ‘meat of a seal’
seal meat
2.4 Hardening: (III) > (I), (IV) > (II)
a. (III) > (I) cxf [q]a- (< a-) ‘to shoot a bear’
bear shoot
cus [t]a- (< ra-) ‘to bake meat’
meat bake
b. (IV) > (II) tux [k]e- (< e-) ‘to take an axe’
axe take
pnnx [t]u- (< ru-) ‘to teach one's one's sister teach sister’
The phonological contexts of spirantization and hardening are in complementary distribution. Spirantization takes place when the target (plosive) follows a vowel, a glide, or a plosive (2.5). There is no spirantization when the target follows a fricative or a nasal (2.6).
2.5 Spirantization Preceding segment
Vowel maca [r]om ‘fat of a seal’
Glide knraj [r]om ‘fat of a duck’
knraj [v]x ‘duck soup’
Plosive t [r]om ‘fat of a species of duck’
amsp [v]x ‘soup of a species of seal’
2.6 No spirantization
Fricative cxf tom ‘bear fat’
cxf px ‘bear soup’
Nasal ke ti ‘sun ray’
rum df ‘Rum(person)’s house’
On the other hand, hardening occurs when the target (fricative) follows either a fricative or a nasal (2.7). When a segment other than fricative precedes the target, hardening does not occur (2.8).
2.7 Hardening Preceding segment
Fricative cxf [q]a- (< a-) ‘to shoot a bear’
lovr [c]osq-(< zosq-) ‘to break a spoon’
Nasal qan [d]u-37 (
2.8 No hardening
Vowel a- ‘to shoot an otter’
ma ra- ‘to bake dried fish’
Plosive t a- ‘to shoot a species of duck’
Glide kj seu- ‘to dry a sail’
Although phonological conditions of these alternations seem to be complex, it turns out to be less so once we focus on the output strings they create. Namely, the accomplished segmental sequence is always vowel-fricative, glide-fricative, plosive-fricative on the one hand and fricative-plosive, sonorant-plosive on the other. In sum, spirantization and hardening conspire to achieve the segmental sequences illustrated below.
2.9 Structural goals of spirantization and hardening
a. vowel
glide fricative
plosive
b. fricative
nasal plosive
Whether this sequence is accomplished by spirantization or hardening is a matter of input. Spirantization activates when a plosive is in the input, whereas hardening activates when a fricative is in the input. In the past, many approaches have overlooked this generalization and described the rules as if they had independent structural goals. This is not the case.
Let us now move to the morphosyntactic conditioning. CA targets a segment at the left edge of a derived morphosyntactic unit in the presence of a preceding segment. CA applies cyclically to every left edge of a morpho-syntactic unit until the maximal projection (NP, VP) is reached.
2.10 Means of derivation
Prefixation p-[r]u (< tu) ‘one’s own sledge’
REF-sledge
Postposition tx-tox ‘towards the top’
top-ALL
tu-rox ‘towards a lake’
qan-dox ‘towards a dog’
Reduplication tk[r]k- ‘to be silent’
(Sakhalin dialect, Hattori, 1962: 107)
NP formation maca [r]om ‘fat of a seal’
VP formation cxf [q]a- (< a-) ‘to shoot a bear’
On the other hand, CA never targets segments in a non-derived environment, nor does it apply across XP boundary, as shown in 2.11 and 2.12, respectively.
2.11 CA does not apply in non-derived environment
utku *ut[]u ‘man’
ns *n[c] ‘teeth’
2.12 No CA across XP boundary (subject-predicate)
el ro- ‘The child holds (something)’
= [NPel] [VPro-] (‘child’ is subject)
Example 2.13 below differs minimally from example 2.12 above with respect to the application of CA. In the former, CA applies since the noun is the object of the following predicate. Thus these two words form a VP, differing minimally from example 2.12.
2.13
el [t]o- ‘(Someone) holds the child’
= [VP[NPel][V to-]] (‘child’ is object)
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