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Meskangela: Difference between revisions
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*/ɥ/ was a separate phoneme in Old Meskangela and had remained distinct from /j/ at least by the early classical period. In dialects with metaphony it likely survived longer, resulting in the rounding of preceding vowels. | */ɥ/ was a separate phoneme in Old Meskangela and had remained distinct from /j/ at least by the early classical period. In dialects with metaphony it likely survived longer, resulting in the rounding of preceding vowels. | ||
*The /s/ series likely had an aspirated allophone [sʰ] word-initially and between vowels. In the Eastern dialects it debuccalised to [ɦ] and had likely been pronounced this was already by the classical period. | *The /s/ series likely had an aspirated allophone [sʰ] word-initially and between vowels. In the Eastern dialects it debuccalised to [ɦ] and had likely been pronounced this was already by the classical period. | ||
*The consonant /β/ was a separate phoneme from /w/ in Old Meskangela, but both merged into /w/ by early Classical period at least in writing, both being represented with "བ". The Southern dialects, however, preserved the distinction with /β/ becoming [b] initially and /w/ medially and the original /w/ disappearing: S. ''ē'' “to be” ← C. ''wai'', but S. ''bē'' “to give” ← C. ''bëjan''. | *The consonant /β/ was a separate phoneme from /w/ in Old Meskangela, but both merged into /w/ by early Classical period at least in writing, both being represented with "བ". The Southern dialects, however, preserved the distinction with /β/ becoming [b] initially and /w/ medially and the original /w/ disappearing: S. ''ē'' “to be” ← C. ''wai'' “to become”, but S. ''bē'' “to give” ← C. ''bëjan''. | ||
The aspirated consonant series likely developed from certain consonant clusters in Proto-Meskangela. Classical Meskangela allows very few initial consonant clusters, which may be expained by their merging into single consonants, thus making the aspiration contrast phonemic. The Inner Eastern dialect later lost this distinction, instead adding a high tone contrast to following vowels. Although a full set of aspirated consonants is shown in the table above, it was likely that some of these phonemes were marginal, appearing only in few words or under exceptional conditions. Certain morphological alternations gave rise to a contrast between plain and aspirated series (as well as voiced-voiceless contrast in the approximant series), but most dialects lost this feature mostly due to later morphological levelling and analogy. | The aspirated consonant series likely developed from certain consonant clusters in Proto-Meskangela. Classical Meskangela allows very few initial consonant clusters, which may be expained by their merging into single consonants, thus making the aspiration contrast phonemic. The Inner Eastern dialect later lost this distinction, instead adding a high tone contrast to following vowels. Although a full set of aspirated consonants is shown in the table above, it was likely that some of these phonemes were marginal, appearing only in few words or under exceptional conditions. Certain morphological alternations gave rise to a contrast between plain and aspirated series (as well as voiced-voiceless contrast in the approximant series), but most dialects lost this feature mostly due to later morphological levelling and analogy. | ||