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Laceyiam: Difference between revisions
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The Laceyiam split from PCT happened earlier than for all other branches, as all other branches underwent a late-PCT reworking of the pitch accent system, adding another (but in most cases allophonic) tonal distinction and losing the phoneme *ə. This stage is usually known as ''Late Eastern PCT''; PCT as reconstructable from all languages, including Laceyiam, has only a two-tone pitch accent system, written as *V₁ (low-mid tone) and *V₂ (high tone); the lack of a subscript number means that vowel is unstressed. No Cis-Tahianshima language keeps this tone system today, but most of them reflects the different accents with different vowel qualities. Laceyiam is particularly helpful in reconstructing it, not just because it didn’t undergo the Late Eastern PCT pitch accent system reworking, but also because most pitch-accented vowels have different reflexes (except for high vowels). For example, PCT had six [a]-phonemes: *a₁ *a₂ *a *ā₁ *ā₂ *ā. Laceyiam reflects them as such: '''*a₁, *a > a — *a₂ > ai — *ā₁ > au — *ā₂, *ā > ā'''. | The Laceyiam split from PCT happened earlier than for all other branches, as all other branches underwent a late-PCT reworking of the pitch accent system, adding another (but in most cases allophonic) tonal distinction and losing the phoneme *ə. This stage is usually known as ''Late Eastern PCT''; PCT as reconstructable from all languages, including Laceyiam, has only a two-tone pitch accent system, written as *V₁ (low-mid tone) and *V₂ (high tone); the lack of a subscript number means that vowel is unstressed. No Cis-Tahianshima language keeps this tone system today, but most of them reflects the different accents with different vowel qualities. Laceyiam is particularly helpful in reconstructing it, not just because it didn’t undergo the Late Eastern PCT pitch accent system reworking, but also because most pitch-accented vowels have different reflexes (except for high vowels). For example, PCT had six [a]-phonemes: *a₁ *a₂ *a *ā₁ *ā₂ *ā. Laceyiam reflects them as such: '''*a₁, *a > a — *a₂ > ai — *ā₁ > au — *ā₂, *ā > ā'''. | ||
Laceyiam, anyway, extensively modified its vowel system through regressive umlaut and assimilation of *j and *w glides, and also the loss of *ə created lots of consonant clusters and consonant-final words, which were all later simplified in some way. Another notable change is the loss of the various [o]-phonemes into another, mostly into /a/. Syncope and the loss of phonemic stress led to different derivations of a same PCT root being often obscured in Laceyiam. | Laceyiam, anyway, extensively modified its vowel system through regressive umlaut and assimilation of *j and *w glides, and also the loss of *ə created lots of consonant clusters and consonant-final words, which were all later simplified in some way. Another notable change is the loss of the various [o]-phonemes into another, mostly into /a/ — even though much later a new /ɔ/ phoneme arose even in PCT-derived roots, from various contraction of earlier segments like *ow, *o₁w, and *ō₂w, as well from a few remaining schwas. Syncope and the loss of phonemic stress led to different derivations of a same PCT root being often obscured in Laceyiam. | ||
As for consonants, Laceyiam is the only Cis-Tahianshima language (excluding its own descendants) that kept the four-way contrast in stops (unvoiced and voiced, plain and aspirate) and four out of five PCT points of articulation: labials, dentals, palatals and velars were kept, but labiovelars merged into different phonemes depending on nearby vowels. However Laceyiam gained a new fifth point of articulation for stops, the ''retroflex'' one, mostly from sequences of a dental consonant plus *r. Laceyiam is also the only language in its family that reflects directly the PCT phoneme *ħ, whose realization is still unclear but was most probably [ħ], [ʜ], or [ʕ]: in the vast majority of cases, PCT *ħ corresponds to Laceyiam {{angbr|l}}, the peculiar nasal (post-)uvular flap /ɴ̆/. This latter phoneme, the most common consonant in Laceyiam, is a reflex of four PCT phonemes: *ħ, *l, *ŋ, and *ŋʷ, as well as other sources like *r word-initially and in dissimilation, or changes like *kr *kʰr > kl. The common cluster /c͡ɕʰɴ̆/ {{angbr|chl}}, as in the word ''Chlegdarim'', arose both from *cr, *cʰr and also from various simplifications after schwa syncope. The three common PCT phonemes *x, *ɣ, and *h were most often deleted but left their trace in the breathy-voiced phonation of the preceding vowel. | As for consonants, Laceyiam is the only Cis-Tahianshima language (excluding its own descendants) that kept the four-way contrast in stops (unvoiced and voiced, plain and aspirate) and four out of five PCT points of articulation: labials, dentals, palatals and velars were kept, but labiovelars merged into different phonemes depending on nearby vowels. However Laceyiam gained a new fifth point of articulation for stops, the ''retroflex'' one, mostly from sequences of a dental consonant plus *r. Laceyiam is also the only language in its family that reflects directly the PCT phoneme *ħ, whose realization is still unclear but was most probably [ħ], [ʜ], or [ʕ]: in the vast majority of cases, PCT *ħ corresponds to Laceyiam {{angbr|l}}, the peculiar nasal (post-)uvular flap /ɴ̆/. This latter phoneme, the most common consonant in Laceyiam, is a reflex of four PCT phonemes: *ħ, *l, *ŋ, and *ŋʷ, as well as other sources like *r word-initially and in dissimilation, or changes like *kr *kʰr > kl. The common cluster /c͡ɕʰɴ̆/ {{angbr|chl}}, as in the word ''Chlegdarim'', arose both from *cr, *cʰr and also from various simplifications after schwa syncope. The three common PCT phonemes *x, *ɣ, and *h were most often deleted but left their trace in the breathy-voiced phonation of the preceding vowel. | ||