there are four more features which are phonetically simultaneous but are phonemicized in the analysis as parts of consonant clusters.
|
|
(i)
|
The aspirated stops and affricate are phonemicized as
clusters of the stops/affricate and the glottal fricative - /ph/, /th/, /kh/
and /ch/. |
|
(ii)
|
The frontopalatal affricates are phonemicized as
clusters of the apicodental affricate and the palatal approximant, viz.,
/cy/ and /jy/. The frontopalatal nasal and the fricative are phonemicized as
apico-alveolar nasal/fricative and the palatal approximant - /ny/, /sy/. |
|
(iii)
|
The palatalized consonants are phonemicized as
clusters of the relevant consonant and the palatal approximant - /ty/, /dy/
and /ly/. |
|
(iv)
|
The labialized trill is phonemicized as a
cluster of the trill and the bilabial approximant /rw/.
|
|
Such a course of analysis is justified due to three
reasons.
|
(a)
|
There are a large number of various types of
clusters in Mishmi. |
(b)
|
The phonemicization as clusters fills up some
gaps in the regularity of the cluster distribution. As an example, we
consider the palatal nasal [ň]. The
bilabial and velar nasals form clusters with /y/ but neither the
apicoalveolar nor the palatal nasal does, by phonemicizing [ň]
as /ny/, two things are accomplished.
|
(i)
|
The cluster formation becomes regular,
i.e., /my/, /ny/ and / y/. |
(ii)
|
We decrease the number of phonemes by one
|
|
The same principle would stop us from analyzing the
apicodental affricates as clusters of apicodental stops and apicodental
fricatives.
|
(i)
|
Stop+ fricative clusters do not occur as a
regular pattern in this language. |
(ii)
|
We will have to introduce a new phoneme, the
apicodental fricative or introduce a morphophonemic rule assimilating the
apicoalveolar fricative to apicodental fricative.
|
(c)
|
The segments, though phonetically unique do not
contrast with the corresponding clusters. Another point crucial to the
analysis is that where the voiceless stop and glottal fricative occur on
either side of an intermorpheme boundary, they are phonetically realized as
an aspirated stop, without any regard for the morphemic status.
|
| Ex : [khlčyk’] + [hįwł] `dust’ |
| earth
quality of |
|
fineness |
gives
[khlčykhįwł]
|
(d)
|
By pursuing this line of analysis, we come to
the last and perhaps the most important principle is economy. By
phonemicizing them as clusters, we decrease the number of phonemes in the
language without either changing the phonemic pattern or introducing new
phonemes, i.e., the antecedent segments of the clusters, viz., h, y,
|
