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In an effort to determine the phonemic status of glottalized consonants in Wichí, an endangered Matacoan language of South America, this paper examines the two main works on this topic: Claesson's (1994) A Phonological Outline of Mataco-Noctones and Viñas-Urquiza's (1970) Fonología de la Lengua Mataca. While Claesson views glottalized consonants as clusters of phonemes, Viñas-Urquiza instead classifies glottalized consonants as single phonemes. Using Wichí data collected during my own fieldwork in Misión La Paz (Salta, Argentina), I build upon Viñas-Urquiza's paper and argue that the scarcity of other consonant clusters, the presence of minimal pairs, and the complication of the syllable inventory provide evidence that glottalized consonants in Wichí are best viewed as individual phonemes and not as clusters of consonants and glottal stops. This research has important implications not only for Wichí phonology but also for historical and comparative studies of the Matacoan language family, typology and phonological theory. |
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