3.2 Local assimilations and syllabification rules 43- regressive voicing assimilation plus other assimilations (producing
geminates)
d. progressive pharyngealization assimilation
dt > tt —
tt > tt —e. progressive point-of-articulation assimilation (j treated as g)
jt > kk —
kt > kk —
gt > kk —f. regressive fricative-stop, progressive position assimilation
Yt > qq rk > qqAll of the clusters are consistent with regressive voicing assimilation. In
(30.a-c) there is no other change. In (30.a) the assimilation is vacuous since the
two C's already have the same voicing value. In (30.b) the assimilation
produces a geminate, while in (30.c) we end up with a nongeminate cluster.
The remaining cases in (30.d-f) are consistent with regressive voicing
assimilation, but also involve other changes, always leading to geminate
clusters. All cases except one involve t as second C. In (30.d), in addition to
regressive voicing assimilation we have progressive pharyngealization
assimilation. In (30.e), treating j as g, we have progressive point-of-
articulation assimilation, whereby the velar first C imposes velarity on the
following t. In (30.f), we see the same progressive point-of-articulation
assimilation starting with Y, which also assimilates (regressively) stop
articulation from the following t or k.
The changes in (30.a-d) reflect surface phonetic constraints and are
therefore consistent with the set of allowed and disallowed clusters even within
stems. However, the progressive point of articulation assimilations do not
apply stem-internally and are therefore morphologically specialized. In
particular, the clusters kt and Yt can occur stem-internally: (PerfP) -akta-
'remember' and -3Yta- 'be planted'.
Because of the assimilations in (30), it may be impossible to identify the
final C of a stem, based only on the phonetic transcription of a single word
containing suffixes or clitics. In particular, surface kk at the boundary could
reflect input kk, jk, gk, jt, kt, or gt. On the other hand, qq in this position could
reflect Yt or Yk, so the stem-final C is clearly identifiable as Y, but the suffix-
or clitic-initial C could be either alveolar or velar.
The "C plus t" assimilations in column I of (30) apply to C-final noun
stems combined with Fe[minine] suffix -t (§4.1.2.3), and to C-final inflected
verbs followed by a 3rd person object clitic (§10.3.1): 3MaSg -\t(t), 3FeSg
-\taet, 3MaPl -\tasn, 3FePl -\tasnaet. Examples of the more interesting
assimilations are in (31). The "roots" show the normal consonant sequence for