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Final Obstruent Voicing in Lakota: Phonetic Evidence and Phonological Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Juliette Blevins,
Ander Egurtzegi and
Jan Ullrich
Juliette Blevins*
Affiliation:
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Ander Egurtzegi*
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / IKER (UMR5478)
Jan Ullrich*
Affiliation:
The Language Conservancy
*
Blevins, Linguistics Program, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, [jblevins@gc.cuny.edu]
Egurtzegi, IKER (UMR5478), Campus de la Nive, Château-Neuf, 15 Place Paul Bert, 64100 Bayonne, France, [ander.egurtzegi@iker.cnrs.fr]
Ullrich, The Language Conservancy, 2620 N Walnut St Ste. 810, Bloomington, IN 47404, [jfu@languageconservancy.org]
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Abstract

Final obstruent devoicing is common in the world's languages and constitutes a clear case of parallel phonological evolution. Final obstruent voicing, in contrast, is claimed to be rare or nonexistent. Two distinct theoretical approaches crystalize around obstruent voicing patterns. Traditional markedness accounts view these sound patterns as consequences of universal markedness constraints prohibiting voicing, or favoring voicelessness, in final position, and predict that final obstruent voicing does not exist. In contrast, phonetic-historical accounts explain skewed patterns of voicing in terms of common phonetically based devoicing tendencies, allowing for rare cases of final obstruent voicing under special conditions. In this article, phonetic and phonological evidence is offered for final obstruent voicing in Lakota, an indigenous Siouan language of the Great Plains of North America. In Lakota, oral stops /p/, /t/, and /k/ are regularly pronounced as [b], [l], and [ɡ] in word- and syllable-final position when phrase-final devoicing and preobstruent devoicing do not occur.

Keywords

final voicingfinal devoicingmarkednessLakotarare sound patternslaboratory phonology

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 96 , Issue 2 , June 2020, pp. 294 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Linguistic Society of America

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