Grung Final Consonant Gradation
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Exploring how final consonants in Grung change before a suffix
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 16 Jun 2021, 20:29.
[comments] grung First, it should be noted that the set of consonants which can appear at the end of a morpheme is far more limited than the total set of consonants in the language. For purposes of consonant gradation, consonants can be divided into the following classes:
Cannot appear morpheme-finally: m, ɲ, d, dz, dɮ, dʒ, g, ts, tɬ, tʃ, tsʼ, tɬʼ, tʃʼ, ð, z, ɮ, ʒ, ɣ, ʃ
(This is all palatals except j, all voiced fricatives and stops, all affricates, and /m/)
Not affected by consonant gradation: q, ɾ
Ejectives: tʼ, kʼ, qʼ
Voicing obstruents: t, k, s, ɬ, x
Stopping fricatives: θ, x
Approximants: w, l, j
Nasals: n, ŋ
These often line up with phonetic natural classes, but not always. It should also be noted that the fricative /x/ falls into both the "voicing obstruents" and the "stopping fricatives" group; this is the only true irregularity in the system, as it cannot be predicted which variety of /x/ it is from the stem alone. In this article, the voicing /x/ will be marked x1 and the stopping /x/ will be marked x2.
All suffixes come in one of four basic categories plus several phonologically predictable variations. The four basic categories are Voicing, Nasalizing, Devoicing, and Stopping. The additional variations are sub-types of the stopping gradation based on the initial consonant of the suffix (all consonant-initial suffixes cause some variant of stopping gradation, while vowel-initial suffixes can take any of the four basic gradations). The results of the various consonants can be seen in the following chart:
| Voicing | Nasalizing | Devoicing | Stopping | Pre-Sonorant | Pre-Glide | /j/-Combining | /l/-Combining | /ɬ/-Combining | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | t | t | tʃʼ | tɬʼ | tɬʼ |
| kʼ | kʼ | kʼ | kʼ | kʼ | k | k | |||
| qʼ | qʼ | qʼ | qʼ | qʼ | q | q | |||
| t | d | d | t | t | t | d | dʒ | tɬ | tɬ |
| k | g | g | k | k | k | g | |||
| s | z | z | s | s | s | z | ʒ | ||
| ɬ | ɮ | ɮ | ɬ | ɬ | ɬ | ɮ | |||
| x1 | ɣ | ɣ | x | x | x | ɣ | |||
| θ | θ | θ | t | t | t | t | ʃ | ɬ | ɬ |
| x2 | x | x | k | k | k | k | |||
| w | w | m | w | w | w | w | |||
| l | l | n | l | l | l | l | |||
| j | j | ɲ | j | j | j | j | |||
| n | ð | n | t | n | d | ð | dɮ | ||
| ŋ | ɣ | ŋ | k | ŋ | g | ɣ |
The approximants (which, again, for gradation purposes, do not include /ɾ/) are by far the simplest- they are only affected by Nasalizing gradation, which (in a shocking twist) nasalizes them. The ejectives are also quite simple, only being affected by combining gradations or the consonantal variations.
The voicing obstruents and stopping fricatives can be fairly clearly seen as similar, yet in some ways opposite. The voicing obstruents are voiced by the Voicing and Nasalizing gradations, but unaffected by the Devoicing and Stopping gradations; the stopping fricatives are unaffected by the Voicing and Nasalizing gradations, and made stops by the Devoicing and Stopping gradations. The pattern is more comples with the consonantal variations.
The nasals /n/ and /ŋ/ are, in turn, the most complex- they lenite under Voicing gradation and the Pre-Glide variation to become /ð/ and /ɣ/ respectively, but undergo fortition from the Devoicing gradation to become /t/ and /k/. The Pre-Sonorant variation, meanwhile, denasalizes them into /d/ and /g/. They are unaffected by Nasalizing and Stopping gradations, but this gives them each four possible realizations- n~ð~d~t and ŋ~ɣ~g~k, while other consonants have no more than two realizations each (excepting those caused by combining gradations).
Of course, this all ignores the combining gradations and the ways in which the choice of gradation is phonologically predictable. Essentially, as said before, the first four columns are the possible results of vowel-initial suffixes; the final six columns are the results of consonant-initial suffixes. There is a single column of overlap, in the "stopping" column.
Vowel-initial suffixes can cause Voicing, Nasalizing, Devoicing, or Stopping gradations. The most common is Voicing gradation, but the others are not rare. The specific gradation cannot be predicted from the modern form of the suffix.
The gradation of a consonant-initial suffix is predictable from the modern form of the suffix. Essentially, start from the right of the chart and move leftward. If there is an applicable combining gradation (which will merge the final consonant of the stem and the initial consonant of the suffix into a single result), that combining gradation will be applied. If the suffix consonant is a glide, the Pre-Glide gradation will be used. If the suffix consonant is a sonorant (but not a glide), the Pre-Sonorant gradation will be used. If none of the above gradations apply, then the Stopping gradation will be used.
After all this, two bits of uncertainty remain- ɨ~u alternation and spirantization. Some suffixes undergo alternation where, if the stem ends in a velar or uvular consonant, it may be /ɨ/ or /u/ depending on the stem, though otherwise it will be /ɨ/. Which suffixes take this alternation is not predictable from phonology alone, nor is which stems prompt the /u/ form.
Spirantization affects the final consonant of the stem, but is applied after consonant gradation. It changes the consonants /tʼ d θ/ into /tsʼ dz s/ respectively (it would likely also change /t/ into /ts/, but the environment where it is applied does not allow for /t/). Spirantization is applied by some suffixes beginning in high vowels, including all suffixes beginning in /ɨ/ or undergoing ɨ~u alternation but none beginning in a short /u/. If the suffix begins with a long /uː/ or a short or long /i iː/, whether spirantization is applied is not predictable from the modern form. However, suffixes which cause Devoicing or Stopping gradation never induce spirantization.
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