May 31, 2017

We were sitting in the living room when someone made a sound.

“[ŋ̥a]”

“Wait, I know how to write that!” I said as I stood up.

“You mean ’na’?” someone asked.

“No, it’s different. It’s a voiceless velar nasal”, I continued as I transcribed the sound on a card with a black marker.

The conservation quickly steered towards phonology and English alveolar taps. I started talking about how their presence and motivating environments don’t necessarily co-occur as phonological restrictions “go in cycles”, obscuring the initial triggering environment.

Someone wanted to bring in an example from German and told me to hand them the textbook. I apologized for not knowing which example they had in mind.

We heard news about many places in Portland getting new Native American names.