Re: Arabic and Korean emphatic/tense consonants
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 7:00 am
I always interpreted these results as transphonologizing a three-way phonation contrast into a two-way pitch + two-way phonation contrast, but I may be misinterpreting the text. I was especially looking at the abstract of the paper you linked, where they say that the pitch distinction is between aspirated and lenis. I thought varieties like Seoul Korean had the following contrast now.
So in a way, the whole three way system is transformed. Aspirated stops become aspirated with a high pitch on the following vowel, fortis stops become non-aspirated with a high pitch on the following vowel and lenis stops become (maybe) aspirated with a (definitely) low pitch on the following vowel.
Long VOT | Breathy V | High F0 on V | |
Aspirated Stops | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fortis Stops | No | No | Yes |
Lenis Stops | ? | Yes | No |
So in a way, the whole three way system is transformed. Aspirated stops become aspirated with a high pitch on the following vowel, fortis stops become non-aspirated with a high pitch on the following vowel and lenis stops become (maybe) aspirated with a (definitely) low pitch on the following vowel.