User:Jomeara421/Ottawa C Restruct

Notes on Syncope

In some cases a short vowel in a word may be metrically Weak in a particular variant of a word (and hence deleted) or it may be metrically strong and hence retained. However in certain words a short vowel may be in a position where it would always be Weak and therefore always deleted. For words of this type there is no evidence in Ottawa about which of the short vowels /i, a, o/ was present in the pre-Syncope form of the word. In such cases it is only possible to determine the quality of the vowel by examining the form of the word in other dialects of Ojbwe that have not been affected by Syncope, or by referring to earlier sources for Ottawa. For example, there is an Ottawa word naawkwe ‘be midday’ which originally had a vowel between the initial w and k. In other dialects this word has the form naawakwe. In Ottawa however for the majority of speakers the short vowel a is never realized and for these speakers there is no reason to believe that the vowel is present in any representation of the word.

Secondary Consonant Clusters Arising from Syncope
Syncope creates secondary consonant clusters that are distinguished from consonant clusters that occur in all Ojibwe dialects. Secondary clusters are subject to a range of adjustments.

Syncope affects sequences of the form /CVC.../ (Consonant Vowel Consonant) by deleting the Weak vowel, creating a secondary cluster of the form [CC...]. The affected consonants may be identical or different.

The fortis or ‘strong’ consonants referred to in this section are p, t, k, ch, s, sh. Similarly, the corresponding lenis or ‘weak’ consonants are b, d, g, j, z, zh.

Word-Internal Secondary Clusters
''1. Neutralization of Lenis Stops Before a Nasal. ''

The lenis stops b, d, g before a nasal consonant may optionally be realized as the corresponding nasal consonant m, n, ŋ although g is the least likely to undergo this shift.

2. Neutralization of Lenis Consonants Before a Fortis Consonant. Lenis consonants (b, d, g, z, zh) occurring before a homorganic fortis consonant (p, t, k, s, zh) are deleted. The examples cited below have fortis fricative consonants as the second element in the consonant sequence. Other examples include bp → p; dt → t; gk → k.

Word-Initial Secondary Clusters
Secondarily-arising word-initial consonant clusters reflect a pattern of Reduplication of verb roots that forms many Ottawa words. This pattern has been effectively eliminated in Ottawa through the restructuring of these consonant clusters.

3. Neutralization of Initial Nasal/Approximant Consonants Before a Homorganic Nasal/Approximant Consonant. Word-initial sequences of two identical nasal consonants or w are normally reduced to a single consonant; pronunciations with doubled consonants are rare.

4. Neutralization of Word-Initial Identical Lenis Consonants

Sequences of word-initial lenis consonants (b, d, g, z, zh) are reduced in two slightly different patterns. In the first, a sequence of two identical lenis fricatives is reduced to a single consonant.

In the second pattern, in a sequence of two identical lenis stops, the consonant cluster is variably realized as (i) a sequence ot two lenis stops; (ii) the corresponding fortis stop, or (iii) a single lenis stop.