14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)

San Francisco, CA, USA
August 1-7, 1999


Taba and Roma: Clusters and Geminates in Two Austronesian Languages

John Hajek (1), John Bowden (2)

(1) School of Languages, University of Melbourne, Australia
(2) Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Australian National University, Australia

Some lesser-known Austronesian languages, with relatively simple phonological inventories, nevertheless have very complex phonotactic structures. The presence of a wide range of typologically unusual cluster combinations in word-initial position has important implications for generally accepted notions about Austronesian languages and about segment sequencing and the sonority hierarchy.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Hajek, John / Bowden, John (1999): "Taba and Roma: clusters and geminates in two austronesian languages", In ICPhS-14, 1033-1036.