Description
TitleUh-Oh: Glottal Stops and Syllable Organization in Sulawesi
PublisherHolland Institute of Generative Linguistics.
Date Created2001
Extent12 p.
DescriptionGlottal stops pattern differently than other consonants in a number of languages spoken on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In the Makassar languages of South Sulawesi, glottal stop alternates with [k]; in the Kaili-Pomona language Uma of Central Sulawesi, stem-final glottal stop is mobile, apparently metathesizing with material suffixed to the stem; and in the Central Sulawesi Saluan language Balantak, glottal stop is invisible with respect to the second person possessive affix, which is normally suffixed to vowel-final stems but infixed to consonant-final stems (other than those ending in glottal stop). I argue that the various anomalies of the glottal stop result from the fact that glottal stops lack oral place specification. This lack of oral place allows consonants to coalesce with neighboring vowels without loss of place information, and makes glottal stops undesirable onsets in languages (like these) which prefer to locate place contrasts in syllable onsets.
NoteThe definitive version of this article was published in Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing (2001).
NoteBroselow, E. (2001). Uh-oh: glottal stops and syllable organization in Sulawesi. In E. Hume, N. Smith, and J. van de Weijer (Eds.), Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing (77-90). Leiden: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics.
GenreBook Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Data Life Cycle Event(s)
Type: Grant award
Funder: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Originator: Ellen Broselow
Originator: Daniel Finer
Data Life Cycle Event(s)
Type: Grant award
Funder: National Science Foundation
Originator: Ellen Broselow
Originator: Daniel Finer
Name: SBR-9729108
CollectionRutgers Optimality Archive
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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