Publication scientifique
Woods Cree /ð/: An Unusual Type of Sonorant1
/ð/ appears in only a handful of the world’s languages (Maddieson 1984 and Ruhlen 1975). In most of these, /ð/ is classified as an obstruent; however, in Woods Cree this segment exhibits a range of characteristics typical of a sonorant. This paper provides a detailed account of the evidence for /ð/’s status in Woods Cree based on its phonetic realizations, the structure of the phonological inventory, voicing patterns, register variation, and phonetic variability in loans from English. While these factors provide strong support that this segment is classified as a sonorant, internal evidence based on obstruent realizations of /ð/—the conflicting patterning of consonant clusters and voicing patterns in word-final position—point to the ambiguous nature of this segment. Given this internal ambiguity and external factors, such as prolonged contact with English and language shift in the community, we raise the possibility that this Woods Cree segment is being reclassified phonologically from one structural category to another
Article, 2005