🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct31.194009.44286@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>
>[discussion of sonority hierarchy, etc.]
>
>> are other problems to, like "table" in French: one syllable [tabl], but two
>> sonority peaks [a] and [l]).
>
>A minor quibble, with a theoretical point: since the [l] is voiceless
>phonetically (is it not?), how can it constitute a sonority peak?
>Are we assuming that the voicing property of the /l/
>in /tabl/ is not present at the point where syllabification occurs,
>but its sonority is?  Or are French words ending in (phonetically)
>voiceless liquids not amenable to this kind of treatment?
>
 
Two minor worries come to mind:  first, is it agreed that French /tabl/
contains only one syllable?
 
Second: no mention had heretofore been made of voicing except with regard
to continuants, and that was in a post from hubey@pilot, concerning the
sonority hierarchy, wherein he lists:
 
    .....
    Second:  liquids (l, r)
    Third:   nasals  (n, m)
    Fourth:  Any other voiced continuant
    Fifth:   Voiceless continuants
    .....
 
I read this to imply that nasals are "voiced" continuants (and perhaps also
liquids).  Do we all concur?  Further, I read it as merely citing "l, r" as
examples of liquids, not as exhaustive; are the voiceless lateral affricates
of, say, Welsh and Sassarese included as laterals at that level of the
sonority hierarchy?
 
Perhaps a safer example of a voiceless final /l/ in French would be 'boucle'
/bukl/. If we were to claim that such words are monosyllabic, and justify
this by excluding voiceless laterals (and nasals?), what do we do with
voiceless final vowels, as in some central varieties of Italian (for example
'ragazzi' is often pronounced with a voiceless, i.e. whispered, vowel at the
end.
 
By the by, I would like to thank all of those of you who have posted the
theoretical consensus on why it is that 'extra' has just the number of
syllables that it does.  I had not been clear on how such items were
governed by the phonoloical hierarcy.   It's really great to have a list
where we can get these things straight.  And to those who have referred
to 'letters' rather than 'phonemes', I say, "cheer up, and follow the
example of Grimm in his discussion of the first sound shift."