ABSTRACT

Marri Tjevin is the language of the Rak Thangkurral and Rak Nadirri people of the Daly River region in northern Australia. Unusually for an Australian language, Marri Tjevin has fricatives at all points of articulation /β, ð, ʐ, ʒ, ɣ/, contrasting with phonetically long, voiceless stops /p, t̪, t, ȶ, k/. These series are only contrastive word-medially, while most word-initial obstruents vary freely in stricture and voicing, which constitutes a typologically unusual form of obstruent manner neutralization. Additionally there are two contrastive voiced stops /b, d/, which occur both medially and initially. In this paper we present the first detailed analysis of Marri Tjevin’s system of obstruent contrasts and positional neutralization, as well as reporting an interesting association between phonemic stops and prosodic prominence. We argue that the Marri Tjevin stop/fricative contrast shows distributional and phonetic commonalities with fortis/lenis obstruent contrasts in some other Australian languages, while the association of phonemic stops with prosodic prominence also echoes patterns observed elsewhere in Australia. Thus, while Marri Tjevin’s system of fricative contrast and neutralization is typologically unusual, it shows striking parallels with other Australian phonologies.

摘要

Marri Tjevin 是澳大利亚北部戴利河地区的 Rak Thangkurral 和 Rak Nadiri 人的语言。与澳大利亚语言不同的是，Marri Tjevin 在所有发音点 /β, ð, ʐ, ʒ, ɣ/ 都有擦音，与语音长的清音塞音 /p, t̪, t, ȶ, k/形成对比。这些系列只是词中对比，而大多数词首障碍词在严格和发声方面自由变化，构成了一种类型学上不寻常的障碍方式中和形式。此外，还有两个对比鲜明的浊塞音 /b、d/，它们出现在中间和最初。在本文中，我们首次详细分析了 Marri Tjevin 的明显对比和位置中和系统，并报告了音位塞音和韵律突出之间的有趣关联。我们认为 Marri Tjevin 塞音/擦音对比在分布和语音上与其他一些澳大利亚语言中的强音/弱音对比显示出分布和语音共性，而音素塞音与韵律突出的关联也与澳大利亚其他地方观察到的模式相呼应。因此，虽然 Marri Tjevin 的擦音对比和中和系统在类型学上是不寻常的，但它与其他澳大利亚音系表现出惊人的相似之处。