Proto‐Mayan Syllable Nuclei

Abstract

Although many aspects of the historical phonology of Mayan languages have been worked out, development of the syllable nuclei of words has received insufficient attention. A tabulation of correspondence sets with subsequent identifications of conditioned reflexes reveals the necessity for reconstructing at least ten different Proto‐Mayan syllable nuclei (including a sequence of a vowel followed by a velar fricative whose reflexes often pattern as syllable nuclei). Proto‐Mayan distinguishes between a short and a long vowel, each of which may occur alone, in combination with a glottal fricative or a glottal stop, or with both of the latter. In addition, another nucleus type behaves as intermediate between a short and a long vowel, suggesting the reconstruction of a three‐way distinction in vowel quantity. This new account of the historical development of Proto‐Mayan is offered as an alternative to Terrence Kaufman’s analysis, which operates with only five reconstructed nuclei.