Glottalized Continuants in Navaho, Nootka, and Kwakiutl

Abstract

It is well known that a very large number of American Indian languages number among their phonemes glottalized stops and affricates (e.g. p̓, t̓, k̓, q̓, k̓ w , q̓ w , c̓, č̓ ). Examples of such languages or groups of languages are Dakota, Winnebago, Ponca and other Siouan languages; Tonkawa; Chitimacha; Kootenay; Salish languages; Sahaptin languages; Chinookan; Tlingit; Haida; Tsimshian; Kwakiutl and Nootka; Chimakuan; Athapaskan languages (e.g. Navaho;) Alsea; Siuslaw; Coos; Takelma; Karok; Shasta; Achumawi and Atsugewi; Porno; Chimariko; Yana; Klamath and Modoc; Kalapuya; Yana; Yurok; Yuki; Wintun; Yokuts; Washo; Keres; Tanoan languages; Kiowa; Mayan languages; Quechua. In most of these languages the glottalized consonants are fortes, as in Chinookan and Athapaskan; in others, as in Chitimacha and Taos (Tanoan), they are lenes. In the overwhelming majority of cases the glottal release is posterior to the oral release, precisely as in Georgian and other Caucasic languages. These glottalized consonants are sometimes known as ‘ejectives’. In some languages, however, the oral and glottal releases are synchronous. An example of a language having glottalized consonants of this type is Southern Paiute (Shoshonean), where they are not true phonemes, however, as they may always be analyzed into stop (or affricate) +?.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 103 citations exist upstream.