Collaborative work involving a number of Siouanists started at the 1984 Comparative Siouan Workshop at the University of Colorado with the goal of creating a comparative Siouan dictionary that would include Proto-Siouan reconstructions.[1] This work yielded a different analysis of the phonemic system of Proto-Siouan, which appears below:[2]
Consonants[]
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
| voiceless | plain | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
| glottalized | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | ||||
| preaspirated | ʰp | ʰt | ʰk | ||||
| postaspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||||
| Fricative | voiced | v | z | ʒ | ɣ | ɦ | |
| voiceless | plain | f | s | ʃ | x | h | |
| glottalized | fʼ | sʼ | ʃʼ | xʼ | |||
| Approximant | w | ɹ | j | ɰ | |||
| Trill | ʙ | r | |||||
| Obstruent | *W | *R | |||||
In Siouanist literature (e.g., Rankin et al. 2015), Americanist phonetic transcriptions are the norm, so IPA *ʃ is Americanist *š, IPA *j is Americanist *y, and so on.
The major change to the previously-proposed system by systematically accounting for the distribution of multiple stop series in modern Siouan languages by tracing them back to multiple stop series in the proto-language. Previous analysis posited only a single stop series.
Many of the consonant clusters proposed by Wolf (1950–1951) can be accounted for due to syncopation of short vowels before stressed syllables. For example, Matthews (1958: 129) gives *wróke as the proto-form for 'male.' With added data from a larger set of Siouan languages since the middle of the twentieth century, Rankin et al. (2015) give *waroː(-ka) as the reconstructed form for 'male.'
Unlike Wolff and Matthew's proposals, there are no posited nasal consonants in Proto-Siouan. Nasal consonants only arise in daughter languages when followed by a nasal vowel.[3] In addition, there is a set of sounds that represent obstruentized versions of their corresponding sonorants. These sounds have different reflexes in daughter languages, with *w appearing as [w] or [m] in most daughter languages, while *W has a reflex of [w], [b], [mb], or [p]. The actual phonetic value of these obstruents is an issue of some debate, with some arguing that they arise through geminated *w+*w or *r+*r sequences or a laryngeal plus *w or *r.[4]
Vowels[]
Previous work on Proto-Siouan only posited single vowel length. However, phonemic vowel length exists in several Siouan languages such as Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk, and Tutelo. Rankin et al. (2015) analyze numerous instances of long vowels as present due to common inheritance rather than common innovation. The five oral vowels and three nasal vowels posited by earlier scholars is expanded to include a distinction between short and long vowels. The proposed Proto-Siouan vowel system appears below:
Oral vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| High | i | iː | u | uː | ||
| Mid-high | ɪ | ɪː | ʊ | ʊː | ||
| Mid | e | eː | o | oː | ||
| Mid-low | ɛ | ɛː | ʌ | ʌː | ||
| Low | æ | æː | a | aː | ɒ | ɒː |
Nasal vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| High | ĩ | ĩː | ũ | ũː | ||
| Mid | ||||||
| Low | ã | ãː | ||||
References[]
- ↑ Rankin, Robert L., Carter, Richard T., Jones, A. Wesley, Koontz, John E., Rood, David S. & Hartmann, Iren (Eds.). (2015). Comparative Siouan Dictionary. Leipzig, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://csd.clld.org, Accessed on 2015-12-13.)
- ↑ Rankin, Robert L., Carter, Richard T. & Jones, A. Wesley (n.d.). Proto-Siouan Phonology and Grammar. Ms. University of Kansas.
- ↑ Some Siouan languages have however developed a phonemic contrast between the non-nasal sonorants w- and r- and the corresponding nasals m- and n-.
- ↑ Rankin, Robert L., Carter, Richard T. & Jones, A. Wesley. (n.d.). Proto-Siouan Phonology and Grammar. Ms. University of Kansas.