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Clicks, concurrency and Khoisan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2014

Julian Bradfield
Julian Bradfield*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
E-mail: JCB@INF.ED.AC.UK.
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Abstract

I propose that the notions of segment and phoneme be enriched to allow some concurrent clustering, even in classical theories. My main application is the Khoisan language !Xóõ, where treating clicks as phonemes concurrent with phonemic accompaniments allows the inventory size to be radically reduced, so solving the problems of many unsupported contrasts. I show also how phonological processes of !Xóõ can be described more elegantly in this setting, with support from metalinguistic evidence and production-task experiments. I describe a new allophony in !Xóõ. I go on to discuss other applications, some rather speculative, of the concept of concurrent phoneme. The article also provides a comprehensive review of the segmental phonetics and phonology of !Xóõ, together with previous analyses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , May 2014 , pp. 1 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Julian Bradfield 2014. Published by Cambridge University Press 

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Footnotes

*

I thank colleagues at Edinburgh: Bob Ladd for many discussions over the years, and comments on drafts, Geoff Pullum and Patrick Honeybone for comments on a draft, and other members of the P-Group, particularly Alice Turk, Bert Remijsen and Satsuki Nakai, for comments following presentations. I am very grateful to Christfried Naumann and Linda Gerlach at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig for great generosity with unpublished DoBeS data, discussions and comments. Following talks, I received a number of helpful comments, from Dan Silverman, John Goldsmith, Krisztina Polgárdi, Amanda Miller, Tom Güldemann and others. I thank particularly Elan Dresher and Daniel Currie Hall for metatheoretical and theoretical suggestions. Finally I thank the reviewers and editors for their detailed and insightful comments.

References

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