Clitics: Pronunciation |
Kashaya Grammar |
As discussed on the overview page, a clitic is a short grammatical element that "leans" on an adjacent word. It is more loosely attached than a suffix is, and there are fewer phonological interactions in the way the stem and clitic are pronounced. There are, however, some important interactions that can occur. (See also the pronunciation of the many clitics that are based on the common assertive verb.)
Some clitics have different pronunciations depending on the preceding word. Notably, the postposition meaning "in, at, with (an instrument)" is usually /wi/ after a vowel, but /li/ after a consonant.
When the preceding word ends in a glide /w y/, that counts as a consonant, even though it turns into a long vowel in the final pronunciation. Perhaps because of this, both /wi/ and /li/ can be found after words that end in a true long vowel.
Some clitics have an additional consonant present in some circumstances. For example, /tow/ "from" can occur as /ltow/ after a word ending in a vowel, but this appears to be optional.
Other clitics show a similar alternation with an initial laryngeal increment, which is pronounced only when it is preceded by a vowel or a sonorant consonant: /hlaw/ "as far as, including", /hca/ plural (people), /hla·li/ "probably, maybe", /hni/ question, /ʔṭʼo/ emphatic, /ʔqʼo/ "and, with". Sometimes the increment is absent even when a vowel precedes, like the /l/ in /ltow/.
Two clitics have variant pronunciations when the preceding word ends in a sonorant consonant /m n w y l/. These special forms add a glottal stop /ʔ/ before the usual pronunciation of the clitic, which is found after a vowel or other consonants. Although this /ʔ/ combines with the sonorant to make a since complex sound, it will be written here as part of the clitic, since that is its origin.
One of these clitics is /bakʰe/ "from, for, one of", which is /ʔbakʰe/ after a sonorant.
The other is /tʰin/ "not", which is /ʔtʰin/ after a sonorant.
Forms of the /yac/ clitic that begin with the sequence /yaco/ are pronounced with a long vowel /ya·co/ when they occur after a CV syllable (with a short vowel).
This is the only clitic that shows changes in vowel length, except for those derived from glides, discussed next.
As often happens when a word ending in a glide /w y/ is followed by another word, the glide changes to vowel length. This happens quite reliably with a following clitic, since they are more tightly bound together than two separate words.
This change doesn't happen when the glide becomes glottalized, as with the /ʔbakʰe/ and /ʔtʰin/ examples. And of course, if the clitic itself ends in a glide, it can undergo the same change to vowel length.
An important difference between a suffix and a clitic is what happens to the glottalized nasal /nʔ/. Within a word, if that sound ends up at the beginning of a syllable (because it is followed by a vowel), it is pronounced as /d/.
But if a word ending in /nʔ/ has a vowel after it because of a clitic, then the result is not /d/ but instead simple /n/.
The details are complicated, and include interactions with the assertive clitic, but there is a clear difference in the outcome depending on whether the following vowel is there because of a suffix or a clitic.