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Word-initial clusters and minimality in Yakima Sahaptin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2006

Sharon Hargus  and
Virginia Beavert
Sharon Hargus
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Virginia Beavert
Affiliation:
Heritage University
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Abstract

In the Yakima dialect of Sahaptin, the smallest forms of words are CCV and CVC, as established by a study of lexical patterns and the obligatory augmentation of subminimal roots. We argue that CCV words cannot be considered a type of disyllable, nor do the initial consonants in CCV words exhibit properties (apart from minimality) that would allow them to be classified as moraic. We therefore propose that Yakima Sahaptin represents a previously unrecognised type of minimality, biconsonantal minimality. This kind of minimality requires a theoretical framework in which consonants can be distinguished from vowels, as do other phonological phenomena.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , May 2006 , pp. 21 - 58
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We thank Emmon Bach for his insightful comments on our 2001 LSA presentation on this topic, and for his probing question as to why this phenomenon, then conceived of as bimoraic minimality (Hargus & Beavert 2001), could not be analysed as biconsonantal minimality. We gratefully acknowledge funding for Sahaptin lexicography, which was provided by grants from the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund (2001, to Hargus) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (2004, to Beavert). We thank the editors of Phonology, an anonymous associate editor and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Finally, we thank Noel Rude for his comments and guidance with Nez Perce. Emily Curtis and Susie Levi also read and commented on an earlier draft. Richard Wright and Pat Shaw provided assistance with Tsou and Kwakw'ala respectively. We are grateful to all for their help.