Vowel-Consonant Metathesis in Nivacle.

GUTIÉRREZ, ANALÍA

Pittsburgh

Conferencia; The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Annual Meeting; 2011

SSILA, LSA

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of vowel-consonant metathesis in Nivaclé (Matacoan-Mataguayan, Argentinean and Paraguayan Chaco). The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, I establish and provide an Optimality Theory analysis of the phonological conditions that trigger VC metathesis in Nivaclé, namely the avoidance of complex codas and the Syllable Contact Law. I thus argue that metathesis is motivated by phonological requirements. Second, based on the implications of this analysis, I propose that Nivaclé postulated phonemic glottalised vowels (Stell 1989) are more satisfactorily analysed as vowel-glottal stop sequences.