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This paper argues that the function of final consonant reduplication (FCR) in Siuslaw ([sis]; Oregon-Coast Penutian/Isolate) is to construe the information in a proposition as unsurprising and expected, as information that should already be known to listeners or at least well anticipated by them. This function is more or less the opposite of mirativity, where information is construed as surprising or unexpected, and is related to a functional domain that was recently labeled "enimitive": the construal of information as "uncontroversial". This paper shows that the discourse profile of the Siuslaw FCR includes uses that belong to the domain of the enimitive, e.g., when deployed in quoted speech or monologues, but that it also includes functionally related uses that do not belong to the enimitive domain, e.g., on the main event line of narratives and in procedural texts. The functional range of the Siuslaw FCR, then, is wider than the enimitive domain. We use this range of uses, together with the uses of similar constructions in some other languages, to argue for a functional domain of anti-mirativity that includes the enimitive as a sub-domain. We conclude by proposing a preliminary sketch of the anti-mirativity functional domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the vowel harmony system of Ronghong Rma (Qiang). This system has previously been described in terms of synchronic vowel alternations. This paper takes a different approach to explore the diachronic element of vowel harmony. The finding is that 'harmonization' is epiphenomenal and that the vowel alternations are the results of regular sound changes from an earlier stage in the language. This diachronic perspective brings into focus a chain shift in the vowel system and clarifies the etymologies of forms that have undergone these changes. It also reveals the importance of uvular consonants as conditioning environments for vowel changes in Ronghong Rma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place-names occupy a special area in the vocabulary of the Polish language. Their shape occasionally differs to a greater or lesser extent from that of words which constitute the bulk of the lexicon. They have been investigated in terms of semantics and etymology by various linguists, but their phonological analysis is only occasionally provided. In this paper, word-initial consonant combinations found in Polish place-names are presented and analysed from the viewpoint of Government Phonology in its most recent version called Complexity Scales and Licensing. The analysis, covering bi-consonantal, tri-consonantal and tetra-consonantal clusters, will be conducted with a view to finding out how the model shows the possible governing relationships between consonants. Of specific interest is the question of whether these toponyms are totally peculiar or just normal in terms of the phonotactics of the Polish language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of the quantity-sensitive stress systems which are characterised by complex weight distinctions have often proven challenging for parallel constraint-based metrical frameworks. A number of parallel-OT accounts are proposed to explain stress systems with multi-level weight hierarchies, in which syllables with long vowels (CVV) are more prominent than closed syllables (CVC), and closed syllables are more prominent than short open syllables (CV). The majority of these accounts are either inadequate or implausible. This paper seeks to provide an alternative account of stress systems with complex weight distinctions. Gradual prosodification, as an application of Harmonic Serialism, is the proposed framework for analysis. Maintaining gradualness and harmonic improvement in prosodic structure across the different steps of the derivation is deemed to be sufficient to achieve the required effects. The realisation of the various prominence relations illustrated in those multi-level weight hierarchies is considered to be an epiphenomenon of the sequential application of independently motivated prosodification processes, such as coda consonant moraification and foot construction. The proposed gradual prosodification model is applied to the stress systems of Kashmiri and Pulaar, that have identical algorithms for primary stress assignment, in addition to the secondary stress patten attested in Pulaar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines word-initial engma deletion in Bininj Kunwok. Loss of initial consonants is a well-documented historical process in many Australian languages (Blevins, Juliette. 2001. Where have all the onsets gone? Initial consonant loss in Australian Aboriginal languages. In Jane Simpson, David Nash, Mary Laughren, Peter Austin & Barry Alpher (eds.), Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages, 481–492. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), but there has been no systematic analysis of initial consonant loss as a synchronic variable (Fletcher, Janet & Andrew Butcher 2014. Sound patterns of Australian languages. In Harold Koch & Rachel Nordlinger (eds.), The languages and linguistics of Australia, 91–138. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton). In the case of Kunwok, word-initial velar nasal deletion (e.g. nganabbarru ∼ anabbarru 'buffalo') has been described as having regional distribution and is a prominent feature of speakers from the western and southern peripheries of the dialect chain, but variable in speakers from the central region (Evans, Nicholas. 2003. Bininj Kunwok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics). This study tests the distribution of the word-initial engma for both linguistic conditioning and sociolinguistic factors, and arrives at three conclusions. First, that preceding environment is a contributing factor. Second, that morphological class is a categorical conditioning factor. And third, that the phenomenon is spreading and there is evidence of language change in progress. This paper also takes into consideration community perspectives, noting that the sound change in progress is accompanied by a change in perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been recently shown by Nikolaev and Grossman that it is possible to provide a fine-grained typological analysis of consonant inventories of the world's languages by investigating co-occurrence classes of segments, i.e. groups of segments that tend to be found together in inventories. Nikolaev and Grossman argued that the structure of many of such co-occurrence classes is in contradiction with the Feature-Economy Principle. As a side product of this analysis, a new definition of the Basic Consonant Inventory (BCI)—a cluster of segments forming the bedrock of consonantal inventories of the world's languages—was provided. This paper replicates the co-occurrence study in an arguably more robust way. In addition to making a methodological contribution, it shows that some of the co-occurrence classes defined by Nikolaev and Grossman, including the BCI, are not statistically stable and may be an artefact of the imbalance in the language sample used for the analysis. The findings of the authors regarding the Feature-Economy Principle, however, were corroborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the geographical and structural diffusion of "Viennese Monophthongization" (VM). By means of a new numerical measure to assess and compare formant movement in 18 lexical items, we provide evidence that VM is an ongoing, regular sound change transforming [aɛ̯] and [aɔ̯] gradually into [æː] and [ɒː]. Data are based on direct dialect recordings of 76 speakers in two age groups in 19 eastern and central Austrian rural locations. Results indicate that VM is diffusing from Vienna in a wave-like fashion. Even though VM is reported to have been established in other bigger cities for more than 30 years, the data show no evidence of diffusion from these cities. There are also other factors affecting the degree of formant movement: The phonetic-phonological environment (stress and the following consonant) explains most of the variance in the data, whereas no frequency effects could be found. Social identity, cultural space, and gender-related network structures are discussed as additional social factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper postulates that the propensity of Polish velar consonants to undergo palatalization is the consequence of the activity of a violable constraint which requires autosegmental place nodes to be associated with one and only one element. Since velars are the only consonants which lack place specification, the spreading of the palatality element |I| onto velars leads to the avoidance of the violation of the relevant constraint. As the palatalizing element |I| must entertain the status of the head, the underapplication of Surface Velar Palatalization before the front mid nasal vowel /ɛ̃/, headed by element |L|, and the vowel /ɛ/ found in some borrowings and headed by element |A|, is enforced by the constraint punishing representations in which more than one element plays the role of the head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the ablauting patterns in Siyuewu Khroskyabs, an understudied Gyalrongic language. Ablaut is only found in verbs containing closed syllables, and ablaut patterns in Siyuewu preserve Proto-Khroskyabs patterns relatively well. After providing a synchronic description of verb-stem functions and ablauting patterns, implicative entropy is used to model Siyuewu's ablauting status. Entropy measurements reveal Siyuewu to have relatively low ablaut predictability, which may be suggestive of a historically conservative ablauting system. On the basis of this quantitative analysis, the current paper proposes an internal reconstruction of ablauting patterns, and postulates a series of velarised vowels for Proto-Siyuewu. Analogical changes are identified through comparison with other Gyalrongic languages. The reconstructed verb forms and patterns are then compared with neighbouring Gyalrongic languages and the directionality of analogy is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a dialectological account of the variety spoken by the first generation to grow up in a community in Essex populated by East Londoners after World War II. The dialect spoken by 15 speakers (female = 9; male =6) born between 1944 and 1969 is detailed in terms of vowels, consonants, morpho-syntactic features, and a brief discussion of Cockney Rhyming Slang. Comparisons are made with previous accounts of the working-class, East London dialect, Cockney, as well as the dialects of Essex (East London's neighbouring county), East Anglia, South East England and Multicultural London English, the dialect now prevalent in the speech of young East Londoners. There are remarkable similarities between the English spoken in this Essex community and previous accounts of Cockney, including its most defining features. This Essex dialect is certainly encapsulated within the natural range of variation within Cockney and far surpasses the Cockney influences observed in other areas of the South East. Conclusively it can be determined that Cockney did move to Essex along with the communities who relocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to focus on two aspects: how the Latin grammarians developed the concept of epenthesis, and how we can now give an explanation to this phenomenon. After having gathered the phonological evidence from the tradition of Latin philology, we propose that, in prehistoric Latin, the epenthesis of -t- in the -s.r- cluster, and the epenthesis of -p- in the -m.l- cluster, aimed at solving some problems in syllabification, that is avoiding an illicit syllable onset and an illicit coda-onset sequence, respectively. We then observe that, in classical Latin, the only productive process is the epenthesis of -p- in the -m.s- and -m.t- clusters, which has the function of fulfilling the faithfulness constraint on the inflection of the -m- stems, blocking the m > n assimilation process that later took place in the evolution from Latin to Italian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialects of the South American language Mapudungun are claimed to display a dental-alveolar contrast across four manners of consonant articulation: stops, nasals, laterals, and fricatives. Such a full, symmetrical system of distinctions among coronals is typologically unique and, as such, is predicted to be unstable. This paper's survey of contemporary data, however, shows that, despite lexical contrast being marginal and dentals being morphologically restricted, the distinction is highly salient to native speakers of the more vital dialects. A careful examination of the pattern's historical roots and diachronic stability, furthermore, allows us to reconstruct it throughout the 400-year textual record. Indeed, the early descriptions and transcriptions shown that, instead of contracting, the contrast expanded, by borrowing the alveolar fricative /s/ from Quechuan and Spanish. The historical and articulatory data shows that while /t̪ n̪ l̪ θ/ are laminal, /t n l/ are apical. Incoming /s/, however, does not follow the pattern, being laminal and prompting a reorganization of featural contrasts among fricatives. As a result of erosion of native fluency under Spanish contact, loss of the dental-alveolar contrast has become commonplace, although there is much variation across speaker, dialect, and manner of articulation. Crucially, dialects which had only voiced fricatives until the borrowing of /s/ seem to have added voicing as a new contrastive feature, helping to preserve the coronal contrast among fricatives, even where vitality is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the glottal stop in word-final position as a variant of /s/ in Puerto Rican Spanish. Previous research (Tellado González 2007; Valentín-Márquez 2006) generally focused on the glottal stop in word-final position between vowels (e.g., /las alas/ 'the wings'). In this paper, we investigate the glottal stop not only in this context, but also in word-final position when preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant (e.g., /los takos/ 'the tacos'), and in word-final position when preceded by a vowel and followed by a pause (e.g., /los takos#/ 'the tacos'). Specifically, the effects of following segment, stress of the following syllable, gender, age, and English use and proficiency on glottal stop production were investigated. The data came from sociolinguistic interviews with 19 participants (8 female, 11 male; Age range: 18–63 years) from San Juan, Carolina, and Guaynabo. The results showed that the glottal stop occurred not only between vowels, but also when followed by a consonant or a pause. Additionally, the glottal stop appeared significantly more before stressed syllables. There were no significant effects of age or gender. Although the effects of English use and proficiency were not significant, we discuss the potential role that contact with English may play in glottalization rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coda-final consonant deletion has been extensively documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish; however, its effects on neighbouring segments is still unknown. Scholars working on consonant deletion in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on /s/, given the semantic importance of this consonant in Spanish. As a result, other consonants which are often deleted syllable-finally in this geolect have been studied to a much lesser degree. The present paper aims to expand the traditional view on vowel doubling by analysing /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion before /a/. Firstly, the speech of 24 speakers from El Ejido (Eastern Andalusia) is analysed to ascertain how the deletion of word final /s/, /r/, and /Ɵ/ changes the quality of a preceding /a/. Secondly, a perception test is carried out with native speakers from the local area to confirm whether these speakers can differentiate perceptually between word-final /a/ and /a/ preceding underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/. This paper presents two main conclusions: 1) /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion changes the quality of a preceding /a/ to different degrees; 2) EAS speakers can identify whether /a/ is followed or not by an underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/, but they cannot identify which consonant has been deleted in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides two new arguments for the existence of the root as a level of representation in Semitic languages. The first argument, from the South Arabian language Mehri, presents a case of allomorphy in which the choice of the suffixal exponent is sensitive to the last vowel of its base, but not to its last consonant, even though the latter is closer to the position of the suffix than the former. Only an approach which distinguishes between a root and a template can explain this case by placing the template closer to the suffix than the root, against the linear order of segments. The second argument shows how in two Neo-Aramaic languages (Jewish Urmi and Jewish Arbel), only the consonants of verbs must be stored; all other verbal exponents are predictable on this basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the (re-)emergence of onset consonants in English loans from French, Latin and Greek, spelt with initial u (> /juː/; e.g. union, use), initial (> /juː/; e.g. eulogy, euphemism), or initial (e.g. habit, homogeneous). It analyses Google Books data, exploiting the occurrence of the article allomorph a (rather than an) as a diagnostic of consonantal realisation. The analysis yields a fine-grained description of the (re-)emergence of consonantal onsets. It shows that their emergence has been a gradual process and has not reached completion yet. On a theoretical level, the paper discusses the interaction between categorical phonological processing and fine-grained phonetic distinctions in an exemplar-based framework. It also sheds light on the question of (near-)mergers and their potential reversibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how preferability measures can help to explain the cross-linguistic distribution of consonant clusters, their acquisition, as well as aspects of their diachronic development. Phonological preferability is measured in terms of cluster size and Net Auditory Distance, which interact with morphological complexity and frequency. Predictions derived from the preferability of clusters are tested against the evidence of language specific phonotactics, language use, language acquisition, psycholinguistic processing, and language change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the studies of sound symbolism, systematic relationships between sounds and meanings. Specifically, we build on a series of studies conducted within a research paradigm called "Pokémonastics," which uses the Pokémon universe to explore sound symbolic patterns. Inspired by a study of existing English Pokémon names, two experiments were conducted in which English speakers were provided with pairs of pre-evolution and post-evolution Pokémon characters, the latter of which were larger. The participants were given two name choices whose members were systematically different in some phonological properties. The results show the following sound symbolic patterns to be productive: (1) names with higher segment counts are more likely to be associated with post-evolution characters than names with lower segment counts, (2) names containing [a] are more likely to be associated with post-evolution characters than names containing [i], (3) names containing [u] are more likely to be associated with post-evolution characters than names containing [i], and (4) names containing coronal consonants are more likely to be associated with post-evolution characters than names containing labial consonants. Overall, the current results suggest that phonological considerations come into play when English speakers name new fictional creatures. Implications of the current results for the theories of sound symbolism are discussed throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several studies on sound change, it has been suggested that change is not possible without allophonic variation; indeed, it appears to be the triggering factor in phonetic evolution. This paper examines the process of yeísmo in Spanish, which is presented in recent research as a change in progress (see Moreno Fernández 2005). Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the lateral palatal /ʎ/ has been gradually merging with the non-lateral palatal approximant /j/, traditionally considered a fricative consonant in spite of its formantic structure. Nevertheless, in this process there is not a real dichotomy between a lateral and an approximant consonant. Instead, there is an array of coexisting allophones of /ʎ/([ʎ], [j], [ʒ]or […] are a few examples). The paper will thus focus on the wide variation in the phonetic representation of /ʎ/ and how it is affecting the Spanish sound system. This will be investigated through experimental means (analyzing speech acoustically) and through the collection of data for different dialects, which will give us information about (i) the existence of intra and inter-speaker variation and (ii) the way this variation functions. The results point to a restructuring of the palatal system of Spanish, at least in some parts of its linguistic territory, which seems to prove that the merger process is still progressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deletion of syllable-final consonants in Eastern Andalusian Spanish has been extensively documented; however, there is no consensus about its effect on neighbouring vowels. Researchers have focused on the effects of /s/ deletion on vowels to analyse how its semantic value is conveyed, while other consonants which are also deleted have been ignored. This paper examines the effects of word-final /s/, /r/, and /θ/ deletion on preceding /o/ from the point of view of production and perception. Regarding production, acoustic analyses of data from El Ejido (Eastern Andalusia), show specific changes to the F1 and F2 of /o/ depending on the underlying consonant it precedes (/s/, /r/, or /θ/). Likewise, a perception test demonstrates that Eastern Andalusian speakers can distinguish between more types of mid back vowels than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes advanced tongue-root [ATR] harmony in Dagbani, a Gur language of Ghana, focusing on three distinct segments: triggers, targets, and blockers of [+ATR] harmony. Dagbani has a bidirectional [ATR] harmony, with [+ATR] as the dominant value. A root [i] triggers a left-to-right harmony targeting vowels in suffixes and clitics while the mid vowels [e, o] trigger a right-to-left direction of harmony targeting root vowels. There are two restrictions on harmony. First, a height similarity condition restricts harmony to a trigger and target that are both [+high] or [-high]. Second, a class of opaque consonants [1, r, s] block the spread of [+ATR] between /i/ and an eligible vowel target. However, the opacity is unidirectional as the coronals do not block a right-to-left harmony. The paper addresses the controversy on whether such opacity effects exist in harmony patterns and discusses other issues of general theoretical interest in harmony patterns, such as parasitic harmony and the position of low vowels in [ATR] harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its renaissance in a series of papers by Theo Vennemann, the concept of syllable cut has been applied to a variety of both synchronic and diachronic problems, especially in the Germanic languages. Further investigation has been able to clarify the phonetic realisation of syllable cut, and has also explored different typological manifestations. However, although this phonological concept has been particularly successful in explaining the motivation behind sound changes in the history of English and German, the questions of how and why syllable cut originated have so far only been touched upon. This paper investigates the genesis and the development of syllable cut in English. It is argued that due to phonological developments in Old English it was possible to generalise the structural and segmental properties of syllables with geminate consonants to all closed syllables with short vowels. This is supported by a quantitative pilot study, which shows that Old English actually possessed a considerable amount of words with geminates, which could have formed a basis for the proposed generalisation. Comparative evidence from Latin and German renders further support for this assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex and cross-linguistically uncommon phonological phenomenon of "emphasis" is best known from Central Semitic languages such as Arabic and Aramaic. It is, however, found to varying degrees in a number of non-Semitic languages in contact with Arabic. This paper describes how in Kumzari, an Indo-European language spoken around the Strait of Hormuz, uvular-pharyngeal emphasis has arisen through language contact and has proliferated through language-internal processes. Beginning with the retention of emphatic consonants in a direct, extensive lexification by Arabic dating back at least 1300 years, emphasis has progressively penetrated the language by means of lexical innovations and two types of sound changes in both borrowed and inherited vocabulary: (i) analogical spread of emphasis onto plain but potentially emphatic consonants; and (ii) a sound change in which z has been invariably recast as an emphatic ẓ with no plain counterpart. The role of the back consonants w, x, q and ḥ, which induce emphasis on potentially emphatic consonants in diachronic processes but not synchronically, highlights the unique way in which this complex phenomenon operates in one non-Semitic language in contact with Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the problem of vowel-generated glides in Kurpian. In general, glides come from two sources: Gliding and Glide Insertion, for instance, word-initial /#iVC/ → [jVC] and /#iC/ → [jiC], where V stands for a vowel and C for a consonant. Even though Gliding and Glide Insertion are different phonological operations, they are united by a single goal: to eliminate onsetless syllables because a glide, regardless of whether it comes from a vowel or from insertion, provides an onset to a syllable. Onset-driven effects are particularly rich in Kurpian because they involve all kinds of vowels, including /a/ but not /ɛ/, a situation that has not been noted in the past research on crosslinguistic typologies (Levi, Susannah V. 2004. The representation of underlying glides: A cross-linguistic study. Seattle, WA: University of Washington dissertation, Levi, Susannah V. 2008. Phonemic vs. derived glides. Lingua 118. 1956–1978; Rosenthall, Sam. 1994. Vowel/glide alternation in a theory of constraint interaction. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts dissertation; Sands, Kathy. 2004. Patternings of vocalic sequences in the world's languages. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California, Santa Barbra dissertation). Further, glides are found both word-medially and word-initially. In this regard, Kurpian is different from Standard Polish, which tolerates both hiatus and word-initial onsetless syllables. It is argued that the constraint interaction required cannot be accounted for in classic Optimality Theory (OT). The solution is to adopt Derivational OT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using articulatory data from five Spanish speakers, we study how stop-lateral-vowel sequences respond to perturbations of phonetic parameters in the segments that compose them. Target words with stop-lateral complex onsets were embedded in different prosodic contexts. Regardless of prosodic context, stability-based indices for the presumed global organization of the elicited stop-lateral complex onsets do not show the expected patterns. Nevertheless, evidence for global organization does emerge in the presence of compensatory relations among phonetic parameters which vary as a result of prosodic modulations. Thus, as stop duration and the lag between the two consonants in a cluster increases, the vowel begins earlier in relation to the preceding lateral. Similarly, as the lag in the stop-lateral transition increases, lateral duration decreases. That is, local changes to some part of the sequence produces (language-particular) compensatory effects propagating to other parts of the sequence, in attestation of the global organization presiding over the entire stop-lateral-vowel sequence. We relate our results to independently observed properties usually associated with the idea that Spanish is a syllable-timed language and draw implications for the link between qualitative phonological organization and continuous phonetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In laboratory studies, speakers often modify their speech (e.g., by hyper-articulating, attempting a "supra-regional" norm, or hypercorrecting) to 'speak correctly', especially under the (perceived) expectation of formal speech. A strategy to address this challenge involves comparing performance on one variable against a well-documented pattern on another variable. Previous research in Spanish shows /s/ sensitivity to speech formality, making it a useful comparison for probing other lenition processes. This study uses the acoustics of coda /s/ to predict the acoustics of /n/ and pre-nasal vowels among speakers of Argentine and Dominican Spanish, two dialects in which these have been widely attested. The data analyzed come from 28 speakers of Dominican Spanish and 26 of Argentine Spanish, recorded with a nasometer (a split channel set of microphones that record nose and mouth signals separately). Findings shows pervasive presence of frication for /s/ (whether [s] or [h]), suggesting heightened attention to speech. Additionally, longer /s/ co-occurs with longer nasal consonants. However, when duration of /s/ was compared to the time-course of nasalization, only the Argentine data showed earlier onset of nasalization with shorter /s/. The addition of a well-known sociolinguistic variable can serve as a validity measure for a less understood variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liaison consonant [z] in French noun phrases has traditionally been assumed to function as a plural marker. The realization of "plural [z]" in N(oun)-A(djective)-combinations is becoming, however, very rare in naturalistic data – except for contexts which allow a proper-name reading. On the one hand, one might think that we are dealing with a recent phenomenon, the beginning of a potential linguistic change in French in the sense of exaptation, reuse of former morphophonological material such as plural markers to signal proper-namehood in the sense of 'frozen morphology'. If this turns out correct, we expect the productivity of the new synchronic function to increase: New NA-combinations which function as proper names should be realized systematically with liaison, and proper name-marking via liaison should also become possible with other liaison consonants. On the other hand, we may be dealing with a (completed) diachronic process, in that only those NA-combinations which allowed liaison at the relevant point in time may have a liaison consonant in their univerbalized form. That is, new NA-combinations, even though they are used as proper names, do not display a liaison consonant, because liaison is no longer possible. The purpose of this paper was to investigate, based on empirical studies, whether liaison productively marks NA-combinations which function as proper names and distinguishes them from NA-combinations that count as common nouns, or whether we are dealing with a completed diachronic process. In view of the poor productivity observed, we argue that we are dealing with cases of univerbation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author argues that Szemerényi's Law operated in the proto-language and that its operation should be restricted to *- V̆Rs# and *- V̆RH# sequences only. Moreover, it is shown that the development of *- V̆Ts# > *- V̆ss# > *- V̄s#, often assumed as part of Szemerényi's Law (cf. Neri 2003: 2035; Lipp 2009: 2, 93) as in PIE *pód-s > *póss > *pṓs > Doric Greek πώς 'foot' (Hesych.), is hardly credible (cf. also Kim 2001: 12724 but without further discussion). The length of the vowel in the Doric form is not certain (cf. LSJ⁹: 1456) and surely secondary in Attic poús as the short vowel is found in compounds (cf. Homeric trípos). Furthermore, if Szemerényi's Law operated as *- V̆Rs# > *- V̄R# we would expect such sequences to appear as *- V̄T# < *- V̆Ts#. I will show that such cases are secondary rather than direct outcomes of Szemerényi's Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies in Message Oriented Phonology (MOP) have provided increasing evidence that informativity plays a non-trivial role in linguistic behavior. This paper provides a case study of MOP focusing on the durational contrast of singleton and geminate consonants in spoken Japanese. In modern Japanese, short consonants (singletons) and long consonants (geminates) are lexically contrastive, and the durational properties of these consonants are affected by a variety of factors. This provides a useful test of the assumptions of MOP. Based on the assumption that the higher the informativity, the more robustly the contrast is phonetically implemented, this study examines the hypothesis that the durations of singletons and geminates increase or decrease according to the informativity of their durational contrast. The study confirms that (i) the distribution of singletons and geminates is affected by the manner of articulation and positional differences (morpheme-initial, medial, and final); (ii) the distributional differences follow from the informativity of contrasts as represented by Shannon's entropy; and (iii) the durational contrast is enhanced by the presence or absence of a minimal pair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese has contrasts between onsets romanized as singletons and Cy clusters (e.g., kaku 'rank' vs. kyaku 'guest'). It is uncertain whether Cy should be treated as a distinctively palatalized consonant /Cy/ or as a /Cy/ cluster; the phonetic realization is compatible with either. A distributional argument favoring the /Cy/ analysis is the neutralization of the contrast before front vowels: Ci, Ce, *Cyi, *Cye; the absence of */Cyi/ and */Cye/ follows automatically from */yi/ and */ye/. In this paper, high vowel devoicing is used as a diagnostic to investigate this phonemicization issue. A production experiment was conducted, comparing the rates of vowel devoicing in words containing Cu/iC and CyuC sequences (e.g., maputa vs. mapyuta). The devoicing rate was significantly lower in CyuC than in Cu/iC. This supports the cluster analysis /Cy/ (with the /y/ inhibiting devoicing) over the singleton analysis /Cy/ for the onset palatalized consonants of Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the status of lexical stress in the processing system of heritage speakers of Spanish and whether or not it is influenced by their experience with English. Participants completed an ABX matching task with auditory stimuli differing in the location of stress or in one consonantal sound. Findings reveal that heritage speakers are more accurate in consonant-based trials than in stress-based ones, but only when matching stimuli were non-adjacent, which suggests that their stress-processing strategies pattern more closely with those of native English speakers. Furthermore, dominance and knowledge of Spanish appear to be associated with increased phonological sensibility to stress contrasts. Pedagogical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Catalan vowel epenthesis and consonant deletion seem to have a different conditioning in simple words, in verb-clitic or clitic-verb sequences, and in clitic-clitic sequences (where an emergence of the unmarked effect with respect to syllable structure is found). In this paper, it is argued that, in spite of these domain effects, which would suggest the need for a serial analysis, all the facts concerning epenthesis and consonant deletion can be accounted for in a parallel optimality-theoretic approach. The differences in behavior are the consequence of the different ranking of morphological Alignment constraints with respect to other constraints and an Alignment constraint that makes reference to subsyllabic constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Languages that have both aspirated stops and the phoneme /h/ often manifest a close parallel in their distribution. Previous work in phonology either has failed to recognize this close parallel or does not formally account for it. For example, American English witnesses a close parallel in the distribution of /h/ and aspirated stops that has largely gone unrecognized in the phonological literature. This paper oers a detailed optimality-theoretic analysis of the distribution of aspirated stops and /h/ for both American English and Korean. For each of these languages we delineate their distribution and show how an optimality-theoretic analysis can account for it. We develop an alignment analysis of their distribution that makes reference to constraints that require positions of prominence (such as word-initial or foot-initial position) to be aligned with the feature [spread glottis]. We further demonstrate how the alignment analysis predicts a typology of patterning of aspirated stops and /h/. Crucially, the typology does not predict that every language should have a close parallel in their distribution like American English, but as we show, it predicts a range of patterns that are instantiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that sonority-based generalizations on consonant phonotactics should directly follow from representations, not from stipulations on representations such as the commonly accepted licensing or government statements. The basic reason for this is that the second approach is both arbitrary and circular, as it entails a variable ranking of alleged wellformedness principles, if we want to explain, for example, why TR clusters are either tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic depending on the language. I argue instead for a representational alternative assuming that (i) consonants and vowels are universally segregated, and (ii) involve two parallel CVCV sequences - one on the C-plane, the other on the V-plane - (iii) which may differ in length. It is shown how the major sonority categories, and thereby the phonotactic constraints based on these categories, naturally result from how the two CVCV sequences are synchronized if the one on the C-plane is longer than the one on the V-plane. It will also be seen how the proposed structures naturally account for several processes such as liquid metathesis and deletion, vowel epenthesis, plosive fricativization, etc., while providing a means for measuring the relative likelihood of some of them on the basis of representational markedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-distance consonant metathesis is less common than the metathesis of adjacent segments but is shown to occur in multiple languages (e.g. Māori kāheru ~ kārehu 'spade') As words tend to be short, and examples rare, it is difficult to assess the tendencies of long-distance consonant metathesis. This paper gives the results of a production experiment with five-syllable nonce words set up to examine the effect of position within the word and stressstatus for long-distance consonant/consonant metathesis. It is found that all positions but the initial one are equally likely to be involved in a metathesis, which is consistent with a previous finding that word-initial onsets resist metathesis in adjacent-segment metathesis. Onsets of stressed syllables are also less likely to participate in metathesis with consonants at greater distances than in an adjacent syllable. The findings suggest that long-distance consonant metathesis is not fundamentally different from adjacent-segment metathesis, although, unlike adjacent segment metathesis, it cannot occur as part of regular process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at providing a CVCV analysis of the Icelandic syllabification phenomena and the distribution of vocalic quantity. Two syllabification algorithms are reported to exist in Icelandic: lexical and post-lexical (Árnason 1998, 2011). The article will focus on the post-lexical algorithm, which determines vowel length in derivatives with class 2 suffixation, compounds, and across word boundaries. A modified model of CVCV will be argued for, which combines the insights from Scheer's (2004, 2012) and Cyran's (2003, 2010) model. It will be proposed that phonological computation applies only once to the whole string (preferably the whole sentence) and that the activity of the interface boils down to representational intervention (in accordance with Scheerian Direct Interface). It will be proposed that manipulation of Final Empty Nuclei (at least in the form of distributing parametric government) is a possible interface operation, as assumed in earlier CVCV (Scheer 2004). The complex pattern of two syllabification algorithms in Icelandic arises via an intricate interplay of sonority profiles of consonants and the needs of intervening empty nuclei (some of which are parametrically governed, while some others are not). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ik presents a widespread pattern of allomorphy characterised by morpheme-specific segment-zero alternations (deletions) and de-affrication. Part of the process is clearly phonological because it applies to every item in the language. Final vowels are devoiced into oblivion, though they are always recoverable in Non-Domain-Final context. Case allomorphy shows various item-specific patterns, some affixes overwrite the final-vowels of roots, others do not, and others yet exhibit consonant-zero alternations. Meanwhile, interestingly, there is (ostensibly) morphologically-sensitive consonant deletion that is fully complementary with what is clearly phonological vowel deletion. In fact, an entirely phonological analysis is possible if the consonant-zero alternations are modelled by floating consonants belonging to the exponents of certain morphemes. Therefore, the item/morpheme-specific aspect of the process is actually specific to the exponent of that morpheme. This locates the whole analysis in the phonology and provides a straightforward account of the complementarity of the two deletion processes. The formal analysis is very close to what has been proposed for French, with its floating consonants and its irregular hiatus-driven vowel deletion. The analysis will then be extended to the item-specific idiosyncratic process of de-affrication that is blocked, not by coincidence, precisely in morphologically overwriting environments. In the end, all the phenomena can be accounted for in a modular analysis, provided one gets the representations right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-occurrence restrictions on word-initial consonant clusters are traditionally viewed as a consequence of the relative sonority of both members of the CC. In the first part of this paper, I aim to show that the reasoning underlying this approach is circular. The observation that sonority does increase in word-initial clusters is relabelled explanation in saying that sonority must increase. Since the crucial part of this circular argumentation is expressed by a constraint ("sonority must increase within word-initial clusters"), I address the more general issue of constraints in linguistic theory. In the second part of the paper, I propose a constraint-free theory where restrictions on word-initial clusters follow from the interaction of more general principles. The main principles I draw on are Government-Licensing (Charette 1990), segmental complexity (Harris 1990) and a strict CVCV syllable-structure (Lowenstamm 1996). None of these devices makes special reference to word-initial consonant clusters. Since word-initial restrictions crucially depend on idiosyncratic properties of the consonants involved, I also investigate the internal structure of consonants. In the representations I introduce, the set of observations commonly subsumed under the label sonority is assigned no phonological status. Rather, it is shown to be a function of known phonological primitives. Finally, a theory of consonantal interaction built on the consonantal identities developed and the principles mentioned is presented. This theory cannot possibly do with the reverse phenomenology, predicting that word-initial RT-clusters (where 'T' = obstruent, 'R' = sonorant) are impossible in languages of the Indo-European (IE) type. In §1, the traditional way of handling word-initial clusters is examined. §2 investigates the theoretical status of constraints. The way to proceed in order to build a constraint-free theory is outlined in §3 and §4. In §5, consonantal identities with in-built sonority are developed. §6 is concerned with the paradigmatic/segmental aspect of word-initial restrictions on clusters. The relevant technical devices used are discussed in §7, that is the phonological ECP and the CVCV- model. Finally, §8 addresses the syntagmatic aspect of the restrictions under focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I demonstrate the inadequacy of recent attempts to distinguish two types of consonantal epenthesis on the basis of the interaction of epenthesis and syllable structure. In particular, the claim must be rejected that a syllable structure motivated epenthesis can be identified. Since even this proposed type of epenthesis consistently yields less preferred syllable structures, syllable structure can at most play a secondary but not a primary role in epenthetic insertion. After introducing a catalog of phonological changes according to motivation, epenthesis is properly classified as a non-syllable structure motivated similarity readjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern Andalusian Spanish neutralises consonants in coda, although despite the neutralisation of most coda consonants, phonemic value has only been given to vowels preceding deleted /s/. The present paper expands on this traditional view and shows a more complex reality. This study will analyse differences between word-final /e/ and /e/ preceding deleted word-final /s/, /r/, and /Į/ in Western Almeria (Eastern Andalusia) to determine if the deletion of each of these consonants causes consistent changes of quality to /e/, creating a system of four mid front vowels. A perception analysis will then determine if Western Almeria speakers can distinguish between each of those vowels, which will confirm whether these realisations of /e/ have allophonic or phonemic value. An analysis shows consistent F1 and F2 values depending on whether /e/ is in coda or whether it precedes word-final /s/, /r/, or /Į/ deletion. Furthermore, perception tests show an ability to distinguish between some of those four mid front vowels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given its usage-oriented character, Cognitive Grammar (CG) can be expected to be consonant with a multimodal, rather than text-only, perspective on language. Whereas several scholars have acknowledged this potential, the question as to how speakers' gestures can be incorporated in CG-based grammatical analysis has not been conclusively addressed. In this paper, we aim to advance the CG-gesture relationship. We first elaborate on three important points of convergence between CG and gesture research: (1) CG's conception of grammar as a prototype category, with central and more peripheral structures, aligns with the variable degrees to which speakers' gestures are conventionalized in human communication. (2) Conceptualization, which lies at the basis of grammatical organization according to CG, is known to be of central importance for gestural expression. In fact, all of the main dimensions of construal postulated in CG (specificity, perspective, profile-base relationship, conceptual archetypes) receive potential gestural expression. (3) CG's intensive use of diagrammatic notation allows for the incorporation of spatial features of gestures. Subsequently, we demonstrate how CG can be applied to analyze the structure of multimodal, spoken-gestured utterances. These analyses suggest that the constructs and tools developed by CG can be employed to analyze the compositionality that exists within a single gesture (between conventional and more idiosyncratic components) as well as in the grammatical relations that may exist between gesture and speech. Finally, we raise a number of theoretical and empirical challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to discuss phonotactic constraints that govern the formation of word-initial consonant clusters in two different languages, German and Polish, and to establish a general procedure for a rank-ordering of clusters. The description of clusters is based on corpus and dictionary data. We define several dimensions in cluster description, namely (i) complexity of clusters, (ii) place of articulation, (iii) manner of articulation and (iv) voicing of segments, for which a total of 15 parameters is derived, each expressing a structural preference for cluster formation true to various degrees in the two languages. These preferences can be seen in part as extensions of the frequently used measure of sonority based mainly on manner of articulation features, and can be considered to provide a more detailed description of clusters than one based on sonority. In addition, a cluster analysis for the two sets of clusters lends support to the conclusions on the fundamental difference between Polish and German word-initial phonotactics. For each cluster, values obtained for every parameter are summed up to calculate an empirically justified rank ordering of the clusters in both languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reconstructed stop consonants of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) present something of an anomaly from the perspective of linguistic typology. Whereas murmured (breathy-voiced) stops are cross-linguistically rare (indeed, they are non-existent in nine of the ten historic branches of the Indo-European languages), they are more widespread in the lexicon of PIE than their plain-voiced counterparts. In this paper we present statistical evidence to establish that the preponderance of murmured stops in PIE is atypical, and propose a novel explanation for their distribution: namely, that murmur - already present in pre-Proto-Indo- European - was in the process of spreading through the PIE lexicon to the plainvoiced stops especially in initial position. We suggest some possible phonetic mechanisms that may have given rise to the spread of murmur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that if we search for a phonological origin of the lengthened grade in the n.sg. of consonant stems, the most plausible candidates are stems in /r/ which underwent the change known as Szemerényi's Law. In an attempt to evaluate the validity of the law I then give a scenario for the processes behind it based on the interaction of hypocorrection and morphological restructuring. Finally, I plead for an alternative scenario based exclusively on external reconstruction, which forfeits the ideal of a transparent PIE with strict concatenative inflectional morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of an experiment designed to test the syllabification of on-glides in Spanish by means of a behavioral task. Traditional approaches to Spanish syllabification assume that on-glides are syllabified with the vowel in the nucleus. However, findings from the developmental literature suggest that at least during early stages of acquisition an alternative onset syllabification is possible. The results of the present study reveal general support for the traditional nuclear approach to Spanish on-glides but also suggest the possibility of gradient syllabification patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glide accretion, a type of regressive assimilatory sound-change by which a homorganic vocalic transition develops between a susceptible vowel and a following palatalized or labialized consonant (or consonant plus palatal or labial vowel), is discussed in this paper as found in the following four languages: (1) in Ubian, a Germanic language of the Lower Rhineland, transplanted by the Romans into a Celtic territory and there attested in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, (2) in English, and (3) in Insular Celtic languages, namely (3.1) in Old Irish and (3.2) in British, especially Welsh. Since there is growing evidence for prehistoric and early historic substratal North Sea Celtic influence not only in Britain but also in the regions on the other side of the Channel, it is proposed that glide accretion both in English and in Ubian developed in contact with such Celtic substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with how to characterize and constrain the typology of reduplication and affixation, given Raimy's (Representing reduplication, University of Delaware dissertation, 1999 et seq.) precedence-based theory of phonological representations as directed graphs. First, we establish a typology of attested reduplication and infixation anchor points based on an empirical survey. We then extend the and algorithms proposed by Mailhot & Reiss (Biolinguistics 1: 28–48, 2007) for long-distance assimilation (harmony) processes to the morphological domain, proposing modifications to reconcile this formalism with Raimy's. Finally, we argue for an amended version of a proposal by Idsardi & Shorey (Unwinding morphology, 2007) regarding the process by which ‘looped’ representations created during the course of morphological concatenation are linearized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I want to show in this paper that Ayizɔ, a Gbe dialect spoken in the southern part of Benin, has two underlying tones: H and L. The other tones, i.e., M, LH, HL, MH and HM, are realizations of these two tones. I shall demonstrate that the HL tone of nouns are derived through a H-Insertion-Rule, when the consonant is a voiceless obstruent; this high tone prevents the spreading of the prefix L tone through a voiceless obstruent. Interestingly, in this dialect, the application of the rules depends on the nature of the consonants. The LH tone is derived through a L-Spreading-Rule. The MH tone is derived through a M-Spreading rule, whereas the HM is derived through H-Insertion Rule and an assimilation rule of the final L tone. The M tone is an allotone of L in the environment of a H tone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a constraint-based analysis of a process that in Traditional New Mexico Spanish (TNMS) generates a syllabic consonant from a sonorant consonant + stressed high vowel combination. It is argued that although vowels are more suitable than consonants to function as prosodic heads, consonants may sometimes be favored over vowels in the role of foot and syllable head. This situation arises when a positional markedness constraint barring the marked value on the place-of-articulation scale (e.g., Dorsal) from the position of foot DTE becomes active. Contrary to previous approaches that assume that vowel deletion is a condition for the syllabization of the consonant, it is argued that the vowel that disappears in the process of syllabizing a consonant is not deleted but either absorbed by that consonant or assimilated to it. It is also demonstrated that syllabic consonants are subject to two universal alignment constraints that govern their distribution by forcing them to be coarticulated with another consonant. Although languages may vary as to whether the syllabic consonant is coarticulated with a preceding or with a following consonant, there are no languages where syllabic consonants appear between two vowels or between a vowel and a pause precisely because in such environments there is not an adjacent consonant available for coarticulation. The condition that the syllabic consonants of TNMS be coarticulated not with a preceding, but with a following consonant, is the reason why they do not occur in prevocalic or prepausal position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at showing that the scope of structural phonemics transcends the limits of the ‘foundations of phonology’, contrary to what is tacitly assumed and appears from some textbooks. It will be argued that the classical concept phoneme, defined as a set of distinctive features, presents both obsolete and still relevant properties. One of these properties, linearity, should clearly be abandoned, as follows from acoustic-perceptual evidence as well as from some types of sound change. Thereby, the phoneme in its purest sense can be said to have been superseded by one major trend characterizing post-SPE phonological theory: multilinearity. However, a phoneme-based property of distinctive features, their locality , is still valid, and is empirically supported by cross-linguistic variation. Now, locality and non-linearity are apparently contradictory. It will be shown that this contradiction cannot be resolved, and that both feature properties cannot be captured, unless consonants and vowels are assumed to be universally segregated within phonological representations. This issue leads to several predictions on C/C and V/V interactions, converges with independent processual evidence like vowel-to-vowel assimilation, and addresses the question of the relationship between phonology and morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]