Minhast: Difference between revisions
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The phoneme /f/ is a minor phoneme in non-Stone Speaker dialects and never occurs word-initially. Its occurrence is most noticeable in the nominalizer ''=naft'', although in some dialects, particularly the Lower Minhast dialects, /h/ has started replacing this dialect. In the Gull Speaker dialect, it is /x/ that has replaced /f/ in most of its lexicon, including in the nominalizer ''=naft'', now realized as ''=naxt''. The Stone Speaker dialect, however, has preserved /f/, allowing it even in word-inital position; moreover, it occurs in high frequency, perhaps as a result of influence from a substratum language. | The phoneme /f/ is a minor phoneme in non-Stone Speaker dialects and never occurs word-initially. Its occurrence is most noticeable in the nominalizer ''=naft'', although in some dialects, particularly the Lower Minhast dialects, /h/ has started replacing this dialect. In the Gull Speaker dialect, it is /x/ that has replaced /f/ in most of its lexicon, including in the nominalizer ''=naft'', now realized as ''=naxt''. The Stone Speaker dialect, however, has preserved /f/, allowing it even in word-inital position; moreover, it occurs in high frequency, perhaps as a result of influence from a substratum language. | ||
The phone /ħ/ is a minor phoneme in the Upper Minhast dialects, occurring most often in the Horse Speaker dialect. If preceded by a vowel, /ħ/ causes the vowel to lengthen. Otherwise, the phone is treated by the other dialects as an allophone of [h], and occurs frequently under predictable phonotactic rules, such as when /h/ geminates, e.g. ''saħħat'' "sharp-edged object", or certain sequences resulting from morphological alternations, as in -hyi- where the /ħ/ surfaces and geminates, and also triggers the glide /j/ to change to /i:/, e.g. ''wandiraħħīlabu'' ("She began to cry, and still is"), '''not''' ''wandiraħyilabu'. | |||
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