Phonetics and word definition in Ahtna Athabascan

This article investigates the question of word definition in a polysynthetic language, Ahtna Athabascan. Syntactic models of polysynthetic languages cannot explain why some syntactic strings constitute sentences and others words, since they represent both in the same component. In the most articulated of such theories, e.g., Rice (2000) and Hale (2001) for Athabascan languages, it is explicit that words are formed based on prosodic principles. It follows that there should be unambiguous cues to the left and right edge of the word. Two possibilities for these cues are explored: acoustic evidence for consonant fortition and phonological evidence from lexicon search. Consonant fortition does not mark edges of Ahtna words, but stem-initial consonants undergo fortition, and there may be fortition of the first conjunct prefix following the disjunct boundary. Other cues include stress, consonant cluster patterns in prefix strings, and stem-final laryngeal neutralizations. In addition, while stress and syllabification patterns can help a listener shape words in Ahtna, lexical knowledge is also required. Morphological designations such as prefix and suffix are still essential. Given these requirements, a substantial role for morphology is indicated in addition to syntax and prosody.