Open Syllable Languages and their Evolution: Common Slavic and Japanese

Nasal Epenthesis in Hindi

“…It seems then that voiced gemi nates (but not the voiceless ones) tolerated a nasal onset. (There is good reason why voicing would be difficult to maintain on geminate stops unless something 'gives' -in this case the stoppedness of the initial part of the geminate; see data in (3) [from Kawa saki, 1981; see also Shevelov and Chew, 1971]). …”

The Emergence of the Syllable Final Nasal Phoneme in Japanese

“…Suffice it here to quote from the concluding part of Shevelov and Chew 1969: The similarities in the phonological development of J[a]p[a]nfese] and Sl[avic] (äs well äs medieval French) are not identities. Yet, when regarded from a typological point of view it seems clear that these changes were internally very well motivated structural changes, paralled by similar developments in typologically related languages.…”

“…Martinet 1978 mentions how phonetic changes like those described above led to a quite similar break-down of the open syllable structure in languages like Common Slavic, Tokharian, and 15th Century French, and Shevelov and Chew (1969) compare the development of Japanese and Common Slavic from a typological point of view and show that the above development of fusion of one or more vowels with a preceding consonant occurred in both languages and led to this kind of phonological change in the transition from open syllables to closed ones in processes which are strikingly alike. Martinet 1978 mentions how phonetic changes like those described above led to a quite similar break-down of the open syllable structure in languages like Common Slavic, Tokharian, and 15th Century French, and Shevelov and Chew (1969) compare the development of Japanese and Common Slavic from a typological point of view and show that the above development of fusion of one or more vowels with a preceding consonant occurred in both languages and led to this kind of phonological change in the transition from open syllables to closed ones in processes which are strikingly alike.…”

Proto-Slavic “reduced” sounds and the vowels u and i in the Slovenian dialect of Valburga: some parallels

“…Сопоставлению славянских и японских фонетических процессов, в том числе падения «редуцированных», посвящена специальная статья Ю. В. Шевелёва и Дж. Чу[Shevelov, Chew 1969].20 Описание Поливанова сделано очень крупными мазками, и, конечно, желательно в будущем проанализировать эти случаи более тщательно.…”