Coronal codas and phonotactics in Tupi-Guarani languages

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2021.v17n1a54118

Keywords:

Tupi-Guarani languages, phonotactics, syllable structure.

Abstract

This paper discusses the phonotactic organization of conservative Tupi-Guarani languages, and of Proto-Tupi-Guarani, by focusing on the analysis of the word-final/pre-pausal coronal approximant [j]. After illustrating how confusion prevails in currently accepted analyses of this segment, which is often considered both a consonant and a member of a diphthong, I argue that the analysis of [j] as a consonant is preferable. This claim, coupled with the auxiliary hypothesis that Proto-Tupi-Guarani phonotactics was subject to a version of the Syllable Contact Constraint, helps explain two otherwise disparate facts about Tupi-Guarani phonotactics: The impossibility of having complex -jC final codas, and the limitation of medial codas to -j.

Author Biography

Fernando Órphão de Carvalho, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (MN/UFRJ)

Professor do Setor de Linguística do Departamento de Antropologia do Museu Nacional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (MN/UFRJ). Pós-Doutor pelo Museu Nacional (MN/UFRJ). Possui Doutorado em Linguística pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), com Estágio de Doutorado no Departamento de Linguística do Max Planck Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie (MPI/EVA, Leipzig, Alemanha). Já foi pesquisador visitante convidado no Max Planck Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie (MPI/EVA) e no Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (DDL), da Universidade de Lyon, França. Tem experiência na área de Linguística, com ênfase em Linguística Histórica, Fonética/Fonologia e Morfologia.

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Published

2021-04-12

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2021): Linguistics, indigenous languages, and analysis from a formal perspective

Section

Articles

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