賽德克太魯閣語舌根子音一致律

Dorsal Consonant Harmony in Truku Seediq

賽德克語乃是屬於台灣南島語中的泰雅語群 (Li 1981)。本文報導賽德克語的舌根子音一致律，以太魯閣方言為主要語料。該音韻規則牽涉到兩個音段──無聲軟顎阻塞音 [k] 及無聲小舌阻塞音 [q]，後者會在詞音位的環境下衍生出來。這個規則不僅發生在詞素界線之間，亦發生在詞根內部。因此 */k…q/ 這樣的音序排列不存在。而少數 /q…k/ 音序的例子則顯示詞根內部的限制由於字尾唇音變成軟顎音的規則而逐漸放鬆 (cf. Li 1980)。從語料的觀察中可以看出 (1) 舌根子音一致律在不同詞素間的轉變牽涉到衍生及屈折詞綴；(2) 其運作的方向性乃是固定地從右至左。就理論的角度而言，由於介於其間的口腔音段對這個規則沒有反應，此同化規則因此被視為非局部對應 (non-local correspondence)，而非經由舌根特徵如 [高] 或 [舌根收縮] 的傳遞 (cf. Hansson 2001) 所造成的，例如介於其間的高母音只有在小舌音附近才會變為中母音。本文從音韻學中對比層次 (contrastive hierarchy) 的模式 (Dresher 2003, Mackenzie 2005) 提供理論上的解讀，並以特徵標記 (feature specification) 分析這兩個音段。小舌音 /q/ 在這個規則中同時具有口腔音及咽喉音的雙重優勢 (McCarthy 1994)，因此促使不同詞素中的 /k/ 變成 [q] 以減輕發音上的困難。類似的詞素內部一致律亦發生在其他泰雅語方言如賽考利克以及四季 (Li 1980)。本文研究提供歷時性的推論，即舌根子音一致律可能是一種普遍存在於泰雅語的現象。

Seediq is a Formosan language belonging to the Atayalic subgroup (Li 1981). This paper reports a (morpho-)phonological process called dorsal consonant harmony found in the language with the data based on the Truku dialect. Two contrastive segments—voiceless velar stop /k/ and voiceless uvular stop /q/—are involved, and the latter is derived in morphophonemic contexts. This process operates not only between morpheme boundaries, but also within morpheme roots, showing that the */k…q/ sequence is unattested, and only very few /q…k/ sequences are found. However, with the introduction of a rule which changes labials to velars in word-final position, this root-internal restriction is gradually loosened (cf. Li 1980). An observation of the data also reveals that heteromorphemic alternation of dorsal consonant harmony involves both derivational and inflectional prefixes; hence it is controlled by fixed right-to-left directionality. Theoretically speaking, this assimilation process is considered as a non-local correspondence rather than a spreading of the dorsal feature [high] or [retracted tongue root] (cf. Hansson 2001), since the intervening oral segments are transparent to the operation without any opacity effect, i.e. the intervening vowels are lowered only if immediately adjacent to a uvular. A theoretical interpretation is provided following the model of contrastive hierarchy in phonology (Dresher 2003, Mackenzie 2005) and feature specifications of both segments, suggesting that the segment /q/ in this language possesses double domination (McCarthy 1994) in both oral and pharyngeal cavities, thus enforcing the harmony of a hetero-morphemic /k/ in order to ease production difficulties. A similar morpheme-internal harmony is also mentioned in other Atayalic dialects such as Squliq and Skikun (Li 1980). A diachronic implication gained from this observation is that dorsal consonant harmony is probably a pan-Atayalic phenomenon.