Michael Cahill

Why labial-velar stops merge to / gb /

Most languages with labial-velar stops (i.e. / / and / /) have both the voiced and voiceless versions, but several dozen languages have only / / or only / /. Examination of the stop inventories of such languages reveals that in languages which have only / / there are always other gaps in the stop inventory, but languages which have only / / usually have a full set of other stops, showing that there is a different historical mechanism involved. Also, ‘/ /-only’ languages are more common than ‘/ /-only’ languages, despite the cross-linguistic tendency to favour voiceless stops. Comparative studies show that ‘/ /-only’ languages are often a result of a merger of * and * into / /. I propose that this merger is a result of three phonetic characteristics of the phonologically voiceless / /, qualities typical of voiced obstruents. Since * is already partly in the ‘voiced camp’, I hypothesise that hearers interpret it as voiced.

Diphthongization in Konni: A Feature Geometry Account

In this paper, diphthongization in Konni (a Gur language of northern Ghana) is analyzed within a Feature Geometry framework, in particular, one using multiple occurrences of the [closed] feature to indicate vowel height. In Konni, the long mid vowels /ee oo ee??/ diphthongize to yield [ie, uo, Ia,?a]. It is shown that these facts of diphthongization are intimately tied to the ATR vowel harmony system, to the point that one rule added to those independently needed for vowel harmony is all that is necessary to account for diphthongization. This rule delinks the vocalic node of the second vowel slot. Comparison with approaches using coindexing, and other height features shows that the approach espoused here more adequately accounts for the facts.