From 20th century
Makhuwa phonology, Mozambique
Katupha’s Law is the name given to a Makhuwa deaspiration process that restricts the distribution of aspirated consonants within stems. In the analysis presented, multiple aspirates are reduced so that only the final aspirated consonant remains, with the process visible in causative formations and some reduplicated stems. Its regularity varies by dialect and morphological context.
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The Story
Katupha’s Law is proposed to account for recurring deaspiration patterns in Makhuwa. The process is defined within the stem, which includes the root together with derivational and inflectional suffixes, rather than merely within adjacent syllables. This domain explains why the addition of a causative extension can alter aspiration in an earlier part of the stem.
Causative formations provide the clearest evidence. Forms such as ottipha ‘to extinguish’ and ottipiha ‘to extinguish transitively’, or othuma ‘to buy’ and otumiha ‘to sell’, show loss of aspiration when the causative extension is added. Comparable alternations occur with verbs meaning ‘to leave’, ‘to frighten’, ‘to produce’, ‘to make arrive’, and ‘to break transitively’, although some dictionary forms preserve competing spellings.
Reduplication reveals both the reach and limits of the process. Some fully reduplicated stems retain more than one aspirated consonant, while other forms such as epwittipwitthi and nipattapattha show deaspiration. The analysis therefore treats Katupha’s Law as applying to all but the last aspirated consonant, while allowing that full reduplication, dialect differences, and non-adjacent consonants may weaken its enforcement.
From 20th century
Makhuwa phonology, Mozambique
Katupha’s Law is the name given to a Makhuwa deaspiration process that restricts the distribution of aspirated consonants within stems. In the analysis presented, multiple aspirates are reduced so that only the final aspirated consonant remains, with the process visible in causative formations and some reduplicated stems. Its regularity varies by dialect and morphological context.
Continue exploring
The Story
Katupha’s Law is proposed to account for recurring deaspiration patterns in Makhuwa. The process is defined within the stem, which includes the root together with derivational and inflectional suffixes, rather than merely within adjacent syllables. This domain explains why the addition of a causative extension can alter aspiration in an earlier part of the stem.
Causative formations provide the clearest evidence. Forms such as ottipha ‘to extinguish’ and ottipiha ‘to extinguish transitively’, or othuma ‘to buy’ and otumiha ‘to sell’, show loss of aspiration when the causative extension is added. Comparable alternations occur with verbs meaning ‘to leave’, ‘to frighten’, ‘to produce’, ‘to make arrive’, and ‘to break transitively’, although some dictionary forms preserve competing spellings.
Reduplication reveals both the reach and limits of the process. Some fully reduplicated stems retain more than one aspirated consonant, while other forms such as epwittipwitthi and nipattapattha show deaspiration. The analysis therefore treats Katupha’s Law as applying to all but the last aspirated consonant, while allowing that full reduplication, dialect differences, and non-adjacent consonants may weaken its enforcement.
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