Re: Allophony

At 7:03 pm -0500 5/11/99, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Rob Nierse wrote:
>> What is more likely?
>> /ti/ => [tsi] ot [ci]?
>
>Both are equally likely.  Consider Japanese, where /ti/ became [tSi],
>while in Spanish at one stage, /tj/ became /tsj/, as in /na'tjon/ -->
>/na'tsjon/ --> /nasjon/ or /naTjon/ (nacio'n)
>
>Intuitively, I suspect [tSi] is more common, but I don't have any data
>to confirm or deny.
Scots Gaelic, where "slender" (i.e. palatalized) /t/ has become [tS], cf.
'cat' [cat] "cat"  ~ 'cait' [catS] "cats".

Similarly in Cornish the /ti/ of Welsh or Breton often turns up as [tSi],
cf. the word for "house" -

Welsh: ty^ [y-circumflex]
Breton: ti
Cornish: chy [tSi:]

Indeed, I'm pretty certain that [ti] --> [tSi] or [ti] --> [ci] is more
widely attested than [ti] --> [tsi] since [s] itself has a tendency to
palatalize before [i].

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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