Anti-Homophony Effects in Dakelh (Carrier) Valence Morphology

Abstract

In Dakelh (Carrier), as in many other Athapaskan languages, valence prefixes and “inner subject” prefixes interact in a complex pattern involving a combination of consonant deletion and/or fusion and, in certain conditions, what looks like epenthesis. In this paper we investigate this apparent epenthesis effect, which is otherwise unexpected in this environment in Dakelh and is problematic in several aspects (Gessner 2003). We propose that the epenthesis should be understood as an anti-homophony effect (Crosswhite 1999, Blevins 2004a, b) serving to systematically maintain a surface distinction between paradigmatically related forms differing in valence. We demonstrate how the anti-homophony effect is best understood in a diachronic-evolutionary context rather than a synchronicphonological one: “epenthesis” is really the blocking of syncope (as a regular historical sound change). The account constitutes a striking parallel to the explanation of so-called antigemination effects as the result of syncope blocking through homophony avoidance, as proposed by Blevins (2004a, b).

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