Prefijos de persona y formación de grupos consonáticos en posición inicial absoluta: ¿cómo se comporta el bribri frente a la complejidad?

Abstract

A consonant cluster is said to be complex when it is composed of two consonants of which the second one is not a glide nor a liquid, or if it is composed of more than two consonants (Maddieson 2013). This paper investigates complex consonant clusters in Bribri, which result from the prefixation of a personal marker (which can be realized as a single consonant) to a lexeme beginning with a stop or a fricative. The study looks at which phonetic clusters are allowed in Bribri and which one are not. Moreover, the strategies speakers use to avoid impossible clusters are analyzed. Articulatory, aerodynamic, acoustic and perceptual arguments are offered as explanations for the observed patterns. It appears that Bribri has typologically uncommon clusters: (i) they can have up to four consonants, (ii) of which the first three can be obstruents and (iii) two stop clusters are pretty common. For example, clusters like [#ʧpkɽ] [#ʧtɽ] [#ʧʦ̟ ] [#pk] [#pʃk] [#spʦ], etc are observed. Nonetheless, Bribri also respects some universal tendencies: it avoids voiced stop clusters and it may use the internal robustness of fricatives and affricates, as it may use the most optimal sequential pattern: CVCV.