Talk:Nisenan language

Indigenous languages of California (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous languages of California, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Indigenous languages of CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous languages of CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject Indigenous languages of CaliforniaIndigenous languages of California articles

Endangered languages (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Endangered languages, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Endangered languagesWikipedia:WikiProject Endangered languagesTemplate:WikiProject Endangered languagesEndangered languages articles

Languages Low‑importance

	Language portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LanguagesWikipedia:WikiProject LanguagesTemplate:WikiProject Languageslanguage articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Indigenous peoples of North America Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and related indigenous peoples of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Indigenous peoples of North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaIndigenous peoples of North America articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

California Low‑importance

	California portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Allophones

Can anyone confirm which type of allophones the |ʦ~ʧ| and |s~ʃ| parings represent. Same for the realization of 'y' varying from |ɨ| to |u| (which to me seems to be quite a difference even for a vowel). The sources I have found so far haven't elaborated on this.

1. Do the differences mark dialectal or regional differences such as the variations of 'r' in the different English dialects?
i.e.' the 'c' in 'caa' [tree] realized as either |ʦ| or |ʧ| depending on the dialect.
i.e., |ʦ| in the valley and |ʧ| in the mountains. (just example, don't know what the actual dialectal differences are)

2. Do they mark variations to particular speakers within a common dialect?
i.e.' the 'c' in 'caa' [tree] realized as either |ʦ| or |ʧ| depending on the speaker.

3. Are they completely interchangeable allophones, and up to individual preference?
i.e., the 'c' in 'caa' realized as either |ʦ| or |ʧ| within the same dialect, similar the the distinction between |ði| and |ðə| as equal variants for 'the' in English.

4. Are they due to phonemic harmony, changing pones depending on surrounding phones.
i.e., aspirated consonants becoming unaspirated when in the middle of a word.

5. Are they specific to particular words?
i.e., 'c' rendered as |ʧ| in 'caa' [tree] and |ʦ| in 'maacam' [ten] (once again, not sure as to the actual distinctions)

Basically, what kind of allophones are these? Where would one be used as opposed to the other? Are they regionalisms or what?

Hope this all wasn't too confusing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Formic15 (talk • contribs) 03:48, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]