Halkomelem Language - Phonology - Morphophonemics

Morphophonemics

Certain processes affect the realization of underlying sounds in Halkomelem. Alternations that occur fairly commonly are discussed in this section, rather than in the following section on morphology.

• In rapid speech, there is optional loss of some instances of schwa, glottal stop, glottalization of resonants, and /h/.
  • An unstressed schwa following an initial nasal stop may be lost, if there is a vowel preceding; the nasal is sometimes heard as part of that syllable (e.g. as in tənəmén ~ tən mén “my father”).
  • /nə/ with no preceding vowel sometimes appears as syllabic (e.g. as in xʷnəcʼáwəθ ~ xʷncʼáwəθ “one kind”).
  • A glottal stop after an unstressed final vowel may be lost, in which case the vowel will be reduced to a schwa (e.g. as in méqeʔ ~ méqə).
  • The glottalization of resonants following unstressed vowels is often inaudible (e.g. as in smənʼé·m ~ sməné·m “descendants”).
  • /h/ before a stressed vowel may be lost when preceded by a spirant (e.g. as in shá·yʼ ~ sá·yʼ “finished”).
• An unstressed schwa may take on the quality of an adjacent full vowel, or one that is separated from it by a glottal stop (e.g. as in spéʔəθ ~ spéʔeθ “black bear”).
• When a root with the shape of /CARˀ/ (C is any consonant, A is a full vowel, Rˀ is a glottalized resonant), takes the suffix /-ət/ “transitive,” the resulting form is /CAʔəRt/. It appears that the resonant and schwa have switched positions (a form of metathesis), but the glottal stop protects the schwa from assimilating to the full vowel (e.g. as in wílʼ “appear” and wíʔəlt “make it appear”).
• Several roots appear alone, without having undergone affixation (e.g. as in ʔí “big” and pá “get blown on”). When this type of root is followed by a suffix that begins with a stressed vowel, (e.g. as in /-ínəs/ “chest”), an /h/ appears (e.g. as in θəhínəs “barrel-chested”). A final /h/ is never realized after a stressed vowel.
• A number of suffixes beginning with /n/ have forms with initial /l/ when they are added to a root or stem ending in /l/ (i.e. there is alternation of /n/ and /l/ in certain morphological cases in this language) (e.g. as in /-nəxʷ/ ~ /-ləxʷ/ “limited control” in ɬə́qʼəlləxʷ “know it” and cə́llexʷ “catch up with him”).
• In the progressive and resultative forms of few verbs with initial /c/ or /x/ followed by /a/, the /c/ is reduplicated as /kʷ/ and the /x/ as /xʷ/ (e.g. as in cám “go/come inland” and its progressive cákʷəm “be going/coming inland”).
• Vowel gradation often occurs between a full vowel, schwa, and zero, depending on the type of root or stem, type of suffix, and placement of stress.
• When some suffixes are joined with stems, a change in the quality of the stressed vowel, from one full vowel to another, in the stem, or (rarely) in the suffix results. The vowel mutations are the product of the assimilation of one vowel to that of an adjacent syllable at an earlier stage in the language's history. Three kinds of these mutations exist (although only the first example is common). In the first two examples, the vowel mutation is similar to the umlauting effect of a suffix on stems in Germanic languages.
  • Stem /e/ changes to /a/ (e.g. as in xʷƛʼáqtəs “long-faced” ).
  • Stem /a/ to /e/ (e.g. as in pé·ltʼθeʔ “buzzard (turkey vulture),” which is composed of spá·l “raven” and the suffix /-itθeʔ/ “clothing, blanket” ).
  • Suffix /e/ to /a/ (e.g. as in sqʼəqʼəxán “partner,” which is composed of sqʼəqʼáʔ “accompanying” and the suffix /-xən/ ~ /-xén/ “foot”).