Initial dropping is a sound change whereby the first

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

s of words are dropped. Additionally,

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

may shift from the first to the second syllable, and the first

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

may be shortened, reduced, or dropped, which can mean the loss of the entire first syllable of a word. These changes have occurred independently in several Australian Aboriginal language groups. Initial dropping may affect all initial consonants, or only some or one of them. It may affect all words that start with those consonants, or sporadically affect some words and not others. In some languages, it seems to have only affected

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

s, and words commonly used as

vocative In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numer ...

s such as

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...

s and kin terms. Like all sound changes, it may affect an entire language or just some

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

s, and may affect multiple adjacent languages or dialects.

Motivation

Initial dropping is caused by the nature of

in Australian languages: although stress is usually on the first syllable, the pitch peak of stress occurs late in the syllable, so that stress applies to the vowel and the following consonant, but not the preceding consonant.

Secondary effects

Cluster simplification

The loss of the initial vowel can result in a difficult consonant cluster. Some languages avoid this by disallowing initial dropping if the result is a difficult cluster. In Mbabaram for example, initial dropping doesn't occur if it results in a cluster other than nasal + stop. Other languages allow initial dropping, dropping additional consonants if needed to simplify the cluster. For example, in

Ngkoth Ngkoth (Nggɔt, Nggoth, Ŋkot) is an extinct Paman language formerly spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by the Winduwinda. It is unknown when it became extinct. Phonology Vowels Ngkoth has seven vowels: Consonants N ...

Phonemicization

It's not unusual for the second consonant or vowel of a word to have an

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

conditioned by what the first consonant or vowel is. When this conditioning element is lost in initial dropping, these allophones become

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

New vowels

In Mbabaram, an in the second syllable had as an allophone if the first syllable started with or . When initial dropping occurred and the were lost, the occurrence of was no longer predictable: it had become a phoneme , distinct from .

Prestopped nasals

Unlike many other languages, where

nasalization In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . In the Internation ...

tends to begin early so that vowels preceding a nasal are nasalized, in

Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

nasalization tends to begin late, so that nasals may be preceded by a short

stop Stop may refer to: Places * Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...

. In Olgolo, nasals in the second syllable had a prestopped

if the first syllable started with a

or a , and the vowel in the first syllable was short. When initial consonants were dropped and initial vowels shortened, the occurrence of the prestopped nasals was no longer predictable: Olgolo had innovated a series of prestopped nasal

List of initial-dropping languages

For details about the extent of initial dropping in a particular language, see that language's article. * Adjnjamathanha *

Arabana The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia. Name The older tribal Exonym and endonym, autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now generall ...

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

* Baagandji * Bidjara ( Gunggari and Yanjdjibara dialects) * Dharambal (

Wapabara The Wapabara, also known as Woppaburra, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are on Greater and South Keppel islands. They are known in their speech as ''Ganumi Bara.'' They are often considered to be a branch of the Darum ...

dialect) *

Kalkatungu The Kalkadoon (properly Kalkatungu) are descendants of an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Mount Isa region of Queensland. Their forefather tribe has been called "the elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland". In 1884 they were ma ...

* Kaytetj * Maljangapa * Mbabaram * Muruwarri * Nganjaywana * Nhanta * Ogh-Undjan * Oykangand/ Olgolo *Many

Paman languages The Paman languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First noted by Kenneth Hale, Paman is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants. Classifica ...

* Umbindhamu * Uradhi * Yaygirr * Yugambal * Western Desert Language (some dialects)

References

*{{cite book , last=Dixon , first=R. M. W. , authorlink=R. M. W. Dixon , year=2002 , title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development , location=Cambridge , publisher=Cambridge University Press , pages=589–601 , url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780 Australian Aboriginal languages Sound changes