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| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
A voiceless interdental wouldn't be impossible, but it would somewhat unusual in this context. I'd have expected an interdental fricative to arise from a broader case of lenition, not just before a high vowel. That's what happened in English and in European Spanish (where it evolved from a voiceless affricate). Also, interdentals aren't really that common in Austronesian languages (Yapese and Drehu being exceptions)... or anywhere, really.
Because it's so very specific to one restricted environment, it's more likely the result of palatalisation as it's always followed by /i/ in the North. If you compare to neighbouring languages, the pronunciation of /ti/ as [tsi] or [t͡ɕi] is much more widespread, being a more likely path to [si]. In Southern Kiribati it's spread to both high vowels, so /tu/ is pronounced [su] too.
As for whether it happens in the beginning of words, yes, apparently.
Wait, are you a linguistics student/researcher/professor? |
I thought of ɕi/ši but failed to consider deaffrication.  No I happen to know some languages professionally (mostly BCE) but no formal Linguistics background.
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