83

this study. The phoneme was not found in the Pacajes
dialects investigated in the research for Hardman et al.
(1975). Late in the research for the present study,
evidence was obtained for the existence of a relic of
the /nh/ phoneme in La Paz/Compi dialect, in one word:
the noun ch'inhi 'nit' (Spanish liendre). This con-
trasts with intervocalic /n/ and /fi/ (e. g. ch'ina ‘human
posterior' and fiufu ‘breast, teat'). Another apparent
relic of /nh/ is a velarized allophone of /fi/ occurring
in Morocomarca (4-3.21.2). It may possibly also occur

in other Aymara dialects not yet investigated. °
3-2.2 Allophones

The allophones described by L. Martin-Barber
(Hardman et al. 1975:3) exist for the dialects of Aymara
investigated for this study. The following additional

comments may be made.
3-2.21 Vowels

In Spanish-influenced dialects the mid vowel /a/
may approximate Spanish /a/ but in monolingual Aymara
(and some nonmonolingual dialects, for example in northern
Potosi, a trilingual Quechua-Aymara-Spanish area) /a/ is
more closed, being realized frequently as [A] or [a].
/i/ and /u/, as noted by L. Martin-Barber, are lowered

in the environment of postvelar consonants /q/ and /x/