2.7 Distributional restrictions: initial and final C, CC.

The basic consonants shown in Table 2-1 can all occur word- or stem-initially. An exception is the rare phoneme /nh/, shown in parentheses in Table 2-1, since this interdental nasal occurs only medially in a handful of uncommon noun stems.

Word-initial /CC/ clusters do not normally occur. Stem-initial /ngg/ occurs in a couple of nouns (borrowed from Warndarang to the south, which has homorganic nasal-stop clusters in this position, arguably unit phonemes): /-nggurya/ 'excrement',/-nggilyiringgilyiri/ (name of beings in Gunabibi myth). In Nunggubuyu, the initial nasal is usually pronounced when a prefix (ending in a vowel) is present, but it is dropped in absolute word-initial position by rule P-33.

It should also be noted that tap /r/ is very uncommon in word- or stem-initial position, though there are a few items like /ramu-nyij/ 'person and his/her FaMo' and /=ra-/ 'to swear at' which can occur word-initially or -internally. Alveolar /1/ is also uncommon word- or stem-initially, but cf. /larawal/ 'sedge sp.' and a few others.

We omit exemplification of all word- and stem-initial consonants since exx. can readily be found in the dictionary.

Let us now consider word- and stem-final consonants (excluding clusters for the moment). The following table identifies consonants which are rare or impossible in this position.

The basic generalisations are these: interdental /dh nh lh/ do not occur finally (this is part of a more general restriction limiting these consonants to syllable-initial position); labials occur finally only in a handful of interjections, including verbal root forms (see §12.2); /w/ is also very rare, although the other semivowel /y/ is not uncommon; apicals are reasonably common, but velars and laminoalveolars are most common of all.

Attested exx. of /b/ are /wub!/ 'to spear', /gab!/ 'to eat', /garab:/ 'to eat', and /julub:/ or /lub:/ 'to jump in'; all of these are uninflected root forms pronounced as interjections. Exx. of /m/ are /n^gam:/ 'to eat , /dum!/ (sound of popping), and one pronunciation of the noun /jubam(i)/, a rare stem designating one of the five fingers (possibly a borrowing). The attested exx. of /w/ are two root forms, /jan^ggaw:/ and /jaw:/ 'to pick up', and two bird terms: /gandhaw/ 'bittern sp.' and /garbaw(g)/ 'owl sp.'.

These restrictions on /b/, /m/, and /w/ can be generalised to all morpheme-final position (i.e., including prefixes and compound initials) in underlying forms, though on the surface we can get /m/ as final segment of a nonfinal morpheme by Nasal-Assimilation P-27, as in /a-maran^g-w₂a:/→/a-maram-ba:/ 'two hands'.

We give one ex. each of the more common stem- and word-final consonants: /malwad/ 'tree sp.', /yimbid/ 'cypress', /wu:j/ 'beeswax', /ran^gag/ 'tree', /mu:n/ 'foot', /marin/ 'pandanus basket', /lha:n^y/ 'tongue', /mu:n^g/ 'hair', /lha:l/ 'country', /balwal/ 'flounder', /lha:r/ 'crossing', /gagar/ 'lightweight', and /a:y/ 'nest, raft'. These are all nouns formally. Verb forms have more limited possibilities, since verb roots end in vowels, and since the obligatory inflectional suffixes which follow them are few in number (those ending in a consonant have final /y/, /n/, /n^g/, or /n^y/).

Word- or stem-final /CC/ clusters are rather restricted. The form /garbawg/ 'owl sp.' was recorded, though other speakers have just /garbaw/. Aside from this, the only final /CC/ clusters attested are of the type liquid (/1 1 r r/) plus velar or laminoalveolar stop or nasal (/g j ng n^y/)> and not all possible combinations of these are attested. The recorded clusters, each given with one ex., are these:

Evidently /r/ is particularly common as first element, with /1/ probably next most common; /g/ is most common as second element.