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Using an optimality theoretic analysis, this study offers a conception of the problem of plural realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish (EAS) where plural suffix /s/ was deleted diachronically that differs from other accounts that assign the EAS plural an underlying suffixal /s/ synchronically. Using alignment constraints, we argue that plural /s/ does not appear in the underlying form synchronically in EAS, but that instead the plural morpheme is represented by a floating [–ATR]PL feature that aligns to the right edge of the word and spreads left. The [–ATR] feature, represented phonetically as a laxing or opening of vowels, applies to all mid vowels, low vowels in word final position, and combines with vowel epenthesis to explain Eastern Andalusian pluralization tendencies in words with final consonants. We discuss the behavior of high vowels, which can be transparent to harmony, and focus in particular on the plural of words that end in a final stressed vowel that have been rarely discussed in the EAS literature. We develop an optimality-theoretic analysis on the Granada variety and extend that analysis to other varieties with somewhat different patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses incipient /aI/-raising in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Acoustic analysis of word list data from 27 participants targets both typical items (e.g., write, writing) and monomorphemic trochaic words often overlooked in previous research (e.g., Nike, bison, cyber, tiger). It reports four major /aI/ production patterns in the Fort Wayne data, which range on a continuum from no /aI/-raising to phonological raising of /aI/ (i.e., raising before t-flaps, a pattern of Canadian raising referred to as Dialect A). In the middle of the continuum is found the elusive Dialect B, a pattern of Canadian raising first documented by Martin Joos in 1942 in which raising occurs in write but not before t-flaps. The authors find that speakers of this type of raising tend not to raise in any trochaic words. In fact, raising in monomorphemic trochaic words, such as Nike or bison, is exceedingly rare in the Fort Wayne data. In tandem with the variation observed within Fort Wayne, the fact that raising has not yet extended into monomorphemic trochaic words further suggests that raising is incipient in this variety. The authors propose that Dialect B is not a separate dialect at all but an incipient variety of Dialect A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from two closely related varieties of Bamana (Bambara), a Mande language spoken in West Africa, reveal that these varieties differ significantly from one another in terms of the syllable shapes they permit in their inventories. A comparison of normative 'standard' Bamana and that spoken by a young cohort of individuals in the Malian capital, Bamako, reveals that the latter colloquial variety has synchronically developed complex CCV and CVC syllable shapes, while the normative variety permits only maximal CV syllables. We posit that this development of complex syllable shapes in Colloquial Bamana is a result of an overall drive towards word minimization in the language and that the language's chosen trajectory of minimization is predicted and best analyzed in reference to the Split Margin Approach to the syllable (e.g., Baertsch ). This paper formalizes Colloquial Bamana in an optimality-theoretic framework and details preferential vowel and consonant deletion patterns that create complex syllable shapes, the role of syllable margin phonotactics in driving these patterns, and other important phonological characteristics of the language that interact with and/or prevent minimization from occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative verbs in Japanese are formed from nouns of various sources including loanwords, Sino-Japanese nouns, mimetics, and proper names. Regardless of their different origin, these innovative denominal verbs exhibit a collection of intriguing properties, ranging from phonological, morphological, to semantic and pragmatic. These properties are not strictly predictable from the component parts including the nature of the parent noun and verbal morphology. Such an unpredictable nature is suggestive of a constructional analysis. The form-meaning-function complex takes a templatic representation, which expresses the phonological and morphological characteristics, and associated with it are semantic and pragmatic properties. These phonological, morphological, semantic, and pragmatic properties combine to capture the nature of innovative denominal verbs as a construction. The analysis supports the idea of applying construction grammar to morphology along the lines of the developing field of construction morphology (e.g., Booij, Compounding and derivation: Evidence for construction morphology, John Benjamins, 2005, Construction morphology and the lexicon: 34-44, Cascadilla Press, 2007, Linguistische Berichte 19: 1-14, 2009a, Compounding and construction morphology, Oxford University Press, 2009b). We further show how insights from templatic (or prosodic) morphology (e.g., McCarthy and Prince, Prosodic morphology, University of Massachusetts and Brandeis University, 1986, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 8: 209-282, 1990) can be conceptualized in terms of construction grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we consider various perspectives on loanword phonology by examining the borrowing into Korean of English words having a word-final /s/. These have been borrowed into Korean with a tense [▪] followed by an epenthetic vowel, as illustrated by the borrowing of English bus as [▪ə▪ɨ]. The realization of English word-final /s/ as [▪] is apparently unexpected given that English [s] and Korean plain (or lax) [s] seem to be quite similar. Moreover, English /s/ when part of a consonant cluster is consistently borrowed as lax [s] in Korean as exemplified by the borrowing of English test as [thesɨthɨ]. Kim (1999) and Kim and Curtis (2002) claim that the borrowing of final /s/ as tense [▪] versus its borrowing in a cluster as lax [s] is a case where subphonemic (nonprimary) acoustic properties in both languages are at issue, and thus are supportive of a perceptual matching approach to loanwords. According to them, the property at issue is consonantal duration. They show that English /s/ in a cluster has a shorter duration than /s/ alone and this correlates with the durational difference between tense [▪] and lax [s] in Korean. Iverson and Lee (2004) agree with this view but take the length distinction between Korean tense and lax consonants to be phonemic rather than subphonemic. Here, we point out certain problematic aspects of the durational view of the borrowing of English /s/, and, then, offer a different account of the borrowing of English final /s/ as tense [▪] by referencing phenomena internal to Korean phonology. While we do not deny the role of subphonemic and perceptual factors in how loanwords are realized, we suggest that a variety of factors, both phonetic and phonological, are involved in determining how a particular sound or sound sequence is realized in borrowing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we show that a high-ranking syllable contact constraint is the driving force behind the well-known nasalization and lateralization phenomena in Korean. Previous analyses of Korean nasalization and lateralization have accounted for the patterns of alternation by reference to rules of various types and rule ordering, with more recent analyses incorporating feature geometry with underspecification. While some of the previous research has indeed noted the importance of syllable contact as a motivating force behind the Korean nasalization and lateralization phenomena, such research has been unable to directly formalize the role that syllable contact plays in Korean phonology. After first presenting the Korean data that highlights the importance of syllable contact, we develop an optimality-theoretic analysis of Korean nasalization and lateralization in which SyllCon is an undominated constraint. The high ranking nature of this constraint determines which underlying consonantal sequences undergo alternation. The specific type of alternation (lateralization or nasalization) is determined by the lower ranking constraints. We compare our analysis with previous approaches to the Korean nasalization and lateralization problem found in the literature and argue for the superiority of the optimality-theoretic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]