DOCSLIB.ORG

Apparent Counterexamples to Consonant Gradation Analysis One

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Apparent Counterexamples to Consonant Gradation Analysis One APPENDIX: Apparent Counterexamples to Consonant Gradation Analysis One of the main claims of this thesis is that foot structure and prominence are distinct notions. In Nganasan, we claim, consonant gradation depends on, and therefore marks, the rhythmic organization of the language, i.e. foot structure, while stress is assigned independently. There are, however, examples in the language, which seem to contradict the claim that consonant gradation is intervocalic lenition that is constrained by the foot structure of the language. These ostensible counterexamples can be grouped into three types: strong grade where we expect to find a weak grade (1a); weak grade where we expect to find a strong one (1b); and, finally, an unexpected reflex of consonant gradation (1c): (1) a. (le)(hua) *(le)(bua) ‘board’ Nom sg non-poss (turku)-(tu) *(turku)-(Du) ‘his/her/its lakes (pl)’ (¯il)(hie)-(tï) *(¯il)(hie)-(Dï) ‘his/her/its slopes (pl)’ (nilu)-(tu) *(nilu)-(Du) ‘his/her/its life’ (¯erbï)-(tï) *(¯erbï)-(Dï) ‘his/her/its wool’ (Namsu)-(tu) *(Namsu)-(Du) ‘his/her/its meat’ b. (kaDar) *(katar) ‘light’ (häÔir) *(häsir) ‘fish hook’ (NuDa-/) *(Nuta-/) ‘berries’ (Nom pl) (¯inï)-(nt´nï) *(¯inï)-(t´nu) ‘older brother’ (Loc) (cimi)-(nt´nu) *(cimi)-(t´nu) ‘tooth’ (Loc) (s´mu)-(nt´nu) *(s´mu)-(t´nu) ‘hat’ (Loc) (Ôem¯i)-(nt´nï) *(Ôem¯i)-(t´nï) ‘salary’ (Loc) c. (cinde-/) *(cinte-/) ‘hill’ (Nom pl) (le)(mbua-/) *(le)(bua-/) ‘board’ (Nom pl) (hoNge-/) *(hoNke-/) ‘handle’ (Nom pl) (kaÔu) ~ (kaÔu-N) *(kasu) ~ (kasu-N) ‘bark’ (Gen sg) (iÔi) ~ (iÔi-N) *(iCi) ~ (iCi-N) ‘father’ (Gen sg) (ÔäDe) ~ (ÔäDeN) *(Ôäte) ~ (ÔäteN) ‘stone’ (Gen sg) (Nubu)-(ndi) *(Nuhu)-(ti) ‘mitten’ (Lat sg) (cebï)-(ndi) *(cehï)-(ti) ‘nail’ (Lat sg) (kiDa)-(ndi) *(kita)-(ti) ‘cup’ (Lat sg) 269 Some of the examples we see above we have already explained: for example, we know that a voiceless obstruent can be a weak grade of the gradation alternation, hence a word like ‘board’ (le)(hua) has alternation between [Nh] and [h], and we observe the correct (weak) grade when the consonant is foot-initial. Other apparent counterexamples in (1a- c), however, are due to a number of factors that we have to discuss in order to prove the validity of the foot structure, we claim is marked by consonant gradation. Below are examples of the alternations between strong and weak grades the reflexes of which are, in most cases, identical to the grade alternations we have previously discussed: (2) a. Nom.sg. Nom.pl. Gloss kuhu kubu/ ‘skin, hide’ basa baÔa/ ‘iron’ kente kende/ ‘sledge’ Nuta NuDa/ ‘berry’ m´ku m´ga/ ‘back’ Ôak´ Ôagü/ ‘twin’ b. kaDar katar´/ ‘light’ he¯Ôir hensïr´/ ‘shaman’s drum’ bï/ bïDï/ ‘water’ tuj tuu/ ‘fire’ Noj Nu´/ ‘foot’ hu´/ hi´Ôi/ ‘fur overcoat’ ciÔar cisare/ ‘benefit’ häÔir häsire/ ‘fish-hook’ ho¯Ôir ho¯Cire/ ‘edge, side’ In (2a) Nominative singular forms and (2b) Nominative plural forms above, the word- internal consonants are in their strong grade, as expected, when they are foot-internal. A problem, however, arises when we look at the Nominative plural forms in (2a). From 270 these data we can see that the only difference between the forms in the Nominative plural and in the Nominative singular is that the Nominative plural ending is a glottal stop, while the Nominative singular ending is zero. It seems clear that the ‘extra’ consonant of the plural effects the consonant gradation: the plural forms in (2a) all have their foot- internal consonants in their ‘weak’ grades, contrary to what we predict with the condition on the distribution of weak grades we previously. The same difficulty is apparent in (2b): Nominative singular forms of the words for ‘light’ and ‘benefit’ have the weak grades of, respectively, t/D and s/Ô alternations. When the plural ending (glottal stop) is added to the basic consonant-final forms in (2b), it causes vowel epenthesis between the last consonant of the stem and glottal stop, since the language does not tolerate complex codas. The final syllable of the plural forms, therefore, is always closed, regardless of whether a stem ends in a vowel (as in (2a)) or in a consonant (as in (2b)). The fact that a syllable is closed seems to affect gradation: the onset of a closed syllable is always ‘weak’ (except word-initial and postconsonantal onsets), and an open syllable’s onset is either weak or strong, depending on the position in a foot. The above generalization, however, is not true for onsets that appear after another consonant (a coda of the previous syllable), and word-initially: (3) a. Nominative, possessive, 3rd person pl. possessor, sg. possessed suffix -tuN/-DuN t´r-tuN ‘their hair’ (cf. kuhuDuN ‘their skin’, stem /kuHu-/) Noj-tuN ‘their foot’ kaDar-tuN ‘their light’ honÔir-tuN ‘their edge, side’ tuj-tuN ‘their fire’ b. tujCa ‘come’, Verbal Adverb honÔir ‘edge, side’ t´r ‘hair’ baN ‘dog’ baarp´ ‘master, chief’ 271 The data in (3a) shows that, while the first consonant of the suffix is a gradating consonant and is an onset of a closed syllable, it surfaces in its strong grade after another consonant. Another position in which the grade of consonants is not regulated by the condition on closed syllables (or their position within a foot) is the word-initial position. All of the word-initial consonants in (3b) are onsets of closed syllables, but the grade of the consonants can be either strong, as in words for ‘come’, ‘edge, side’ and ‘hair’, or weak, as in the words for ‘dog’ and ‘master, chief’. The word-initial position, therefore, is the only position where we need to prespecify the grade of the consonants in the inputs, the same conclusion we reached in the discussion of foot-marking consonant gradation, henceforth Rhythmic Gradation (RG). The type of gradation we have been discussing here, therefore, is very similar to RG: all the gradation alternations happen intervocalically (due to the set of LENITION constraints under the present analysis), voicing of a consonant can be prespecified in the input for word-initial consonants and only there; postconsonantal consonants receive the default strong grade. The only difference, it seems, RG and Closed Syllable Condition (CSC) is only in the constituent the weak grades can be aligned with; in case of RG that depends on foot structure, the foot is the relevant constituent, and in case of CSC, this constituent in a closed syllable. Given the degree of similarities, one might suspect that RG and CSC are, in fact, the same phenomenon and CVC can constitute a foot by itself. However, there are two facts that argue against such an analysis: first, closed syllables are always footed together with another syllable (except if CVC is the ultimate syllable within a word, footed into a degenerate foot): (4) a. (t´r-r´)(gï-tï) *(t´r)-(r´kï)-(Dï) ‘similar to his/her/its hair’ (Noj-r´)(gï-tï) *(Noj)-(r´kï)-(Dï) ‘similar to his/her/its foot’ (tuj-r´)(gï-tï) *(tuj)-(r´kï)-(Dï) ‘similar to his/her/its fire’ (baN-r´)(gï-tï) *(baN)-(r´kï)-(Dï) ‘similar to his/her/its dog’ 272 b. (kaDar)-(r´kï)-(Dï) *(ka)(Dar-r´)(gï-tï) ‘similar to his/her/its light’ (häÔir)-(r´kï)-(Dï) *(hä)(Ôir-r´)(gï-tï) ‘similar to his/her/its fish hook’ The examples in (4a) show that initial CVC syllables are always footed with a syllable following it, creating a binary foot. If CVCs were footed by themselves like CVV syllables are, we would observe different reflexes of RG in the similative and the 3rd person singular possessive suffix. (4b) further shows that the footing of CVCs as light is not due to any sort of Foot Form constraints that might allow a (CVC.CV) as a good, or nearly ideal, trochee, but ban a (CV.CVC) trochee as maximally disharmonic. The data in (4b) indicate that it is not the case here, since the closed syllable is not footed with the following syllable, but rather with the preceding one. All the data in (4) shows that closed syllables are footed exactly as CV syllables are, i.e. CVCs are light syllables, and their onsets may or may not be foot-initial, in contrast with CVV syllables, the onsets of which are always foot-initial. Another argument against analyzing CSC and RG as the same phenomenon is that some of the reflexes of the two differ. In particular, the ‘weak’ reflexes of prenasalized obstruents, which are lenited with the loss of prenasalization for RG, are lenited with voicing without the loss of prenasalization for the CSC: (5) n n strong grade Nh t Nk s ¯C RG h t k s C weak grade m n CSC b d Ng ¯Ô ¯Ô weak grade Onsets of closed syllables weak-grade reflexes of voiceless prenasalized consonants are voiced prenasalized consonants. In other words, lenition still takes place, but the result of it is simply voicing distribution. Given the two significant differences between RG and CSC we are concluding here that the two are synchronically different. While RG marks the foot structure of the language just as we have been maintaining, CSC stands on its own, accounting for a lot of apparent 273 counterexamples to RG we mentioned in (1). The similarities between the two phenomena should probably be attributed to the historical development of the language that used to regard closed syllables as heavy, and thus allowing them to pattern with CVV syllables, and not CV syllables as the case is in the contemporary language. Some of the apparent counterexamples to our generalization about consonant gradation in Nganasan are, therefore, explained: the language has two similar but distinct types of consonant alternations, that differ in terms of a) whether they depend on foot structure (RG) or syllable structure (CSC); and b) the weak reflexes of prenasalized obstruents.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Consonant Gradation in Estonian and Sámi: Two-Level Solution TROND TROSTERUD and HELI UIBO
    14 Consonant Gradation in Estonian and Sámi: Two-Level Solution TROND TROSTERUD AND HELI UIBO 14.1 Introduction Koskenniemi’s two-level morphology was the first practical general model in the history of computational linguistics for the analysis of morphologi- cally complex languages. In this article we will reconsider one of the key innovations in Koskenniemi (1983), namely the treatment of consonant gra- dation in finite state transducers. We will look not at Finnish, but at two lan- guages with a more extensive consonant gradation system, namely Estonian and Sámi. The goal of the paper is to demonstrate two different ways of mod- eling consonant gradation in a finite state morphological system - lexical and morphophonological. We will also compare the resulting systems by their computational complexity and human-readability. Consonant gradation is rare among the languages of the world, but stem al- ternation in itself is not, and the treatment of consonant gradation can readily be transferred to other stem alternation phenomena. Koskenniemi’s original idea was to see stem alternation as an agglutinative phenomenon. Consider the example (14.1), showing a two-level representation of stem alternation. ehT e$:ehe (14.1) Here the $ sign is a quasi-suffix, introduced to trigger consonant grada- tion in the stem. Two-level rules decide the correspondence of T to surface phonemes t or 0 (empty symbol), based on the context, specifically, according to the presence or absence of the symbol $ in the right context. Another type of rules for handling stem alternations that can be compiled Inquiries into Words, Constraints and Contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • Consonant Gradation in Finnish Dialects
    Consonant Gradation in Finnish Dialects Consonant gradation is a lenition process common to most of the Finnic languages. In Finnish it is now only partly productive phonologically in that it rarely affects recent loans and neologisms. However, it is still pervasive in the lexicon and is very much a part of Finnish phonology. Gradation in Finnish affects geminate and singleton voiceless stops preceding a short vowel in a closed syllable. The geminates shorten (quantitative gradation) and the singletons undergo various lenition processes (qualitative gradation), depending on the environment, the dialect, and a range of sociolinguistic factors (see 1). However, within the Finnish dialects, there is much variation within qualitative gradation, especially for the coronal (see 2). The goal of this paper is to provide an account of qualitative gradation that takes into consideration the kind of variation that exists between dialects as shown in Kettunen’s (1940) dialect atlas. There are five main patterns in the data, as shown in table 1. In all cases /p/ lenites to [ʋ]. The /t/ may lenite, take on place features from an adjacent vowel, or delete while /k/ may either assimilate to place features of an adjacent vowel or delete. That deletion is disfavoured for either segment suggests that there is a strong requirement to retain the consonant. Finally, the lenition of /t/ simply needs to result in a non-nasal coronal if there is not assimilation to a vowel. In this paper I provide an account of the conditions for assimilation to vowels. Assimilation is most likely to occur when the sequence of vowels that would result from deletion would create hiatus.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonemic Vs. Derived Glides
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/240419751 Phonemic vs. derived glides ARTICLE in LINGUA · DECEMBER 2008 Impact Factor: 0.71 · DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2007.10.003 CITATIONS READS 14 32 1 AUTHOR: Susannah V Levi New York University 24 PUBLICATIONS 172 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: Susannah V Levi Retrieved on: 09 October 2015 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Lingua 118 (2008) 1956–1978 www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua Phonemic vs. derived glides Susannah V. Levi * Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, New York University, 665 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10003, United States Received 2 February 2007; received in revised form 30 June 2007; accepted 2 October 2007 Available online 27 September 2008 Abstract Previous accounts of glides have argued that all glides are derived from vowels. In this paper, we examine data from Karuk, Sundanese, and Pulaar which reveal the existence of two types of phonologically distinct glides both cross-linguistically and within a single language. ‘‘Phonemic’’ glides are distinct from underlying vowels and pattern with other sonorant consonants, while ‘‘derived’’ glides are non-syllabic, positional variants of underlying vowels and exhibit vowel-like behavior. It is argued that the phonological difference between these two types of glides lies in their different underlying featural representations. Derived glides are positional variants of vowels and therefore featurally identical. In contrast, phonemic glides are featurally distinct from underlying vowels and therefore pattern differently. Though a phono- logical distinction between these two types of glides is evident in these three languages, a reliable phonetic distinction does not appear to exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Livret Des Résumés Booklet of Abstracts
    34èmes Journées de Linguistique d’Asie Orientale JLAO34 34th Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics 7–9 juillet 2021 / July, 7th–9th 2021 Colloque en ligne / Online Conference LIVRET DES RÉSUMÉS BOOKLET OF ABSTRACTS Comité d’organisation/Organizing committee Raoul BLIN, Ludovica LENA, Xin LI, Lin XIAO [email protected] *** Table des matières / Table of contents *** Van Hiep NGUYEN (Keynote speaker): On the study of grammar in Vietnam Julien ANTUNES: Description et analyse de l’accent des composés de type NOM-GENITIF-NOM en japonais moderne Giorgio Francesco ARCODIA: On ‘structural particles’ in Sinitic languages: typology and diachrony Huba BARTOS: Mandarin Chinese post-nuclear glides under -er suffixation Bianca BASCIANO: Degree achievements in Mandarin Chinese: A comparison between 加 jiā+ADJ and 弄 nòng+ADJ verbs Etienne BAUDEL: Chinese and Sino-Japanese lexical items in the Hachijō language of Japan Françoise BOTTERO: Xu Shen’s graphic analysis revisited Tsan Tsai CHAN: Cartographic fieldwork on sentence-final particles – Three challenges and some ways around them Hanzhu CHEN & Meng CHENG: Corrélation entre l’absence d’article et la divergence lexicale Shunting CHEN, Yiming LIANG & Pascal AMSILI: Chinese Inter-clausal Anaphora in Conditionals: A Linear Regression Study Zhuo CHEN: Differentiating two types of Mandarin unconditionals: Their internal and external syntax Katia CHIRKOVA: Aspect, Evidentiality, and Modality in Shuhi Anastasia DURYMANOVA: Nouns and verbs’ syntactic shift: some evidences against Old Chinese parts-of- speech
    [Show full text]
  • A Grammar of Gyeli
    A Grammar of Gyeli Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) eingereicht an der Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin von M.A. Nadine Grimm, geb. Borchardt geboren am 28.01.1982 in Rheda-Wiedenbrück Präsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz Dekanin der Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal Gutachter: 1. 2. Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: Table of Contents List of Tables xi List of Figures xii Abbreviations xiii Acknowledgments xv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Gyeli Language . 1 1.1.1 The Language’s Name . 2 1.1.2 Classification . 4 1.1.3 Language Contact . 9 1.1.4 Dialects . 14 1.1.5 Language Endangerment . 16 1.1.6 Special Features of Gyeli . 18 1.1.7 Previous Literature . 19 1.2 The Gyeli Speakers . 21 1.2.1 Environment . 21 1.2.2 Subsistence and Culture . 23 1.3 Methodology . 26 1.3.1 The Project . 27 1.3.2 The Construction of a Speech Community . 27 1.3.3 Data . 28 1.4 Structure of the Grammar . 30 2 Phonology 32 2.1 Consonants . 33 2.1.1 Phonemic Inventory . 34 i Nadine Grimm A Grammar of Gyeli 2.1.2 Realization Rules . 42 2.1.2.1 Labial Velars . 43 2.1.2.2 Allophones . 44 2.1.2.3 Pre-glottalization of Labial and Alveolar Stops and the Issue of Implosives . 47 2.1.2.4 Voicing and Devoicing of Stops . 51 2.1.3 Consonant Clusters .
    [Show full text]
  • Linguistic Nature of Prenasalization
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1977 Linguistic Nature of Prenasalization Mark H. Feinstein The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2207 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated w ith a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part o f the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material.
    [Show full text]
  • Morphological Sources of Phonological Length
    Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha B.A. (Brown University) 1993 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2004 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Sharon Inkelas (chair) Professor Larry Hyman Professor Keith Johnson Professor Johanna Nichols Spring 2008 Abstract Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair This study presents and defends Resizing Theory, whose claim is that the overall size of a morpheme can serve as a basic unit of analysis for phonological alternations. Morphemes can increase their size by any number of strategies -- epenthesizing new segments, for example, or devoicing an existing segment (and thereby increasing its phonetic duration) -- but it is the fact of an increase, and not the particular strategy used to implement it, which is linguistically significant. Resizing Theory has some overlap with theories of fortition and lenition, but differs in that it uses the independently- verifiable parameter of size in place of an ad-hoc concept of “strength” and thereby encompasses a much greater range of phonological alternations. The theory makes three major predictions, each of which is supported with cross-linguistic evidence. First, seemingly disparate phonological alternations can achieve identical morphological effects, but only if they trigger the same direction of change in a morpheme’s size. Second, morpheme interactions can take complete control over phonological outputs, determining surface outputs when traditional features and segments fail to do so.
    [Show full text]
  • Proposal for Superscript Diacritics for Prenasalization, Preglottalization, and Preaspiration
    1 Proposal for superscript diacritics for prenasalization, preglottalization, and preaspiration Patricia Keating Department of Linguistics, UCLA [email protected] Daniel Wymark Department of Linguistics, UCLA [email protected] Ryan Sharif Department of Linguistics, UCLA [email protected] ABSTRACT The IPA currently does not specify how to represent prenasalization, preglottalization, or preaspiration. We first review some current transcription practices, and phonetic and phonological literature bearing on the unitary status of prenasalized, preglottalized and preaspirated segments. We then propose that the IPA adopt superscript diacritics placed before a base symbol for these three phenomena. We also suggest how the current IPA Diacritics chart can be modified to allow these diacritics to be fit within the chart. 2 1 Introduction The IPA provides a variety of diacritics which can be added to base symbols in various positions: above ([a͂ ]), below ([n̥ ]), through ([ɫ]), superscript after ([tʰ]), or centered after ([a˞]). Currently, IPA diacritics which modify base symbols are never shown preceding them; the only diacritics which precede are the stress marks, i.e. primary ([ˈ]) and secondary ([ˌ]) stress. Yet, in practice, superscript diacritics are often used preceding base symbols; specifically, they are often used to notate prenasalization, preglottalization and preaspiration. These terms are very common in phonetics and phonology, each having thousands of Google hits. However, none of these phonetic phenomena is included on the IPA chart or mentioned in Part I of the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (IPA 1999), and thus there is currently no guidance given to users about transcribing them. In this note we review these phenomena, and propose that the Association’s alphabet include superscript diacritics preceding the base symbol for prenasalization, preglottalization and preaspiration, in accord with one common way of transcribing them.
    [Show full text]
  • Kalevala­ Verses
    ;-~~'<iF%2iFi Ie .' I YYdC e. "', -J.. L~ fA=)J 1 "'r METRICS AND MORPHOPHONEMICS IN THE KALE~ALA If PAUL KIPARSKY MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 'Il' I." The prosody of Finnish epic folk poetry has been described, with clarity and in detail, in Sadeniemi's Metrik des Kalevala­ Verses. 1 This material has important implications for a general theory of prosody which have not yet been drawn. To point out some of these is one of the purposes of the following remarks. Another is to demonstrate that what seem to be systematic class­ es of exceptions to the general metrical rules established by Sadeniemi actually turn out to be fully regular as soon as jus­ tice is done to the phonological structure of the Finnish lan­ guage. Of the three sections of this paper, the first simply summarizes, and in part slightly reformulates, the essential fea­ r t ':>S tures of the Kalevala line as stated by Sadeniemi. Section two ,'. es is a discussion of alliteration, in which a new solution is g~ven f to the paradox of vowel (or zero) alliteration. Section three ·.'()k analyzes the specific form of the phonological representations \.- to which the metrical constraints must apply. Towards the end of the paper I indulge in some speculation about the role of sound change and morphophonemics, and their interaction, in the development of metrical systems. 1. The Metrical Structure of the Line The Kalevala is composed of octosyllabic lines in which the distribution of quantity and stress is subject to certain re­ strictions. For example, while the following three lines are correctly formed Luvan antoi suuri Luoja 'The great Creator gave per­ mission' Sel~ssa meren sinisen 'On the expanse of the blue sea' Oi Ukko ylijumala '0 Ukko, supreme god' these two, likewise octosyllabic, violate the metrical rules: Rakas oli oma emo 'Dear was (my) own mother' Vanhalla Vainamoisella 'Old V~inamoinen (adessive)' To formulate the constraints on quantity and stress it is neces­ sary to assume an underlying trochaic meter for all lines of the 1.
    [Show full text]
  • O. Introduction
    Studies in African Linguisticss Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 1997 TWO KINDS OF MORAIC NASAL IN CIYAO* Larry M. Hyman University of California, Berkeley and Annindo S. A. Ngunga University of California, Berkeley Eduardo Mondlane University A problematic issue in a number of Bantu languages concerns the phonological analysis of "preconsonantal nasality", i.e., the question of whether NC entities should be analyzed as single prenasalized consonants or as sequences of nasal + (homorganic) consonant. In this paper, the authors examine two kinds of moraic nasal---one syllabic, one not-in Ciyao, a Bantu language spoken in East Africa. They further demonstrate that there is a third type of preconsonantal nasality in Ciyao which is neither moraic nor syllabic. o. Introduction Among the few problematic issues surrounding the syllabification of consonants in Bantu languages is the proper interpretation of "preconsonantal nasality": For each relevant language of the family, one must first ask whether the sequencing of [+nasal] [-nasal] in forms such as Proto-Bantu *ba-ntu 'people' is properly viewed as a consonant cluster or as a single prenasalized consonant. Noting that * Research on Ciyao has been conducted in the context of the Comparative Bantu On-Line Dictionary (CBOLD) project, supported in part by National Science Foundation Grants #SBR93- 19415 and #SBR96-16330. Earlier versions of this paper were given at D.C. Santa Cruz, Universite Lumiere Lyon2, Universite d' Aix-en-Provence, and the University of Edinburgh. We would like to thank the participants at these presentations as well as Robert Botne and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Native Lexical Resources to Create Technical Neologisms for Minority Languages James A
    0 Using native lexical resources to create technical neologisms for minority languages James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley [email protected] Department of Linguistics 1203 Dwinelle Hall UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 1 Using native lexical resources to create technical neologisms for minority languages 2 Several young Lahu speakers have been receiving graduate training in linguistics at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. However, the language of instruction in their linguistics courses is English or Thai, since like most other minority languages, Lahu lacks a technical vocabulary in which to discuss scientific subjects. Faced with such a problem, languages typically resort to borrowing technical terminology from majority languages. In the case of Lahu, a language dispersed over several countries, borrowings have been flooding in from Chinese, Burmese, Shan, Northern Thai, Standard Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese. This makes it difficult to decide which languages to borrow technical terms from. It therefore seems to me that the best solution would be to invent such terms using native Lahu morphemes as much as possible. In order to achieve this goal, I have been collaborating with a Lahu student at Payap to develop such a linguistic vocabulary. So far several hundred terms have been proposed, mostly in the realm of phonology. As this effort develops, we shall concentrate more on morphosyntactic and historical linguistic terminology. This paper discusses the issues involved in creating technical neologisms, and lists the terms so far proposed. * 近年來有好幾位拉祜族學生在泰國清邁西北大學 (Payap University) 進修語言學碩 士。但由於拉祜語（像多數其他的少數民族語言）缺乏語言學的技術詞彙，討論語言學的 時候通常用英語或泰語。 面對著這種問題，很多語言以借貸多數語言的技術詞彙為解決方法。分佈在好幾個 國家的拉祜語已吸收了從漢、緬、掸、北泰、標準泰、老撾和越南語言的借詞。在這個複 * This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos.
    [Show full text]
  • Looking Into Segments Sharon Inkelas and Stephanie S Shih University of California, Berkeley & University of California, Merced
    Looking into Segments Sharon Inkelas and Stephanie S Shih University of California, Berkeley & University of California, Merced 1 Introduction It is well-known that the phonological ‘segment’ (consonant, vowel) is internally dynamic. Complex segments, such as affricates or prenasalized stops, have sequenced internal phases; coarticulation induces change over time even within apparently uniform segments. Autosegmental Phonology (e.g., Goldsmith 1976, Sagey 1986) captured the internal phasing of complex segments using feature values ordered sequentially on a given tier and ‘linked’ to the same timing unit. Articulatory Phonology (e.g., Browman & Goldstein 1992, Gafos 2002, Goldstein et al. 2009) captures internal phases through the use of coordinated gestures, which overlap in time with one another but are aligned to temporal landmarks. Segments can be internally dynamic in a contrastive way. Affricates differ from plain stops or plain fricatives in being sequentially complex; the same difference obtains between prenasalized vs. plain stops, between contour and level tones, and so forth. Segments can also be dynamic in a noncontrastive way, due to coarticulation with surrounding segments. To the extent that phonological patterns are sensitive to contrastive or noncontrastive segment-internal phasing, the phasing needs to be represented in a manner that is legible to phonological grammar. However, contemporary phonological analysis couched in Optimality Theory, Harmonic Grammar and similar approaches is very highly segment-oriented. For example, Agreement by Correspondence theory, or ABC (Hansson 2001, 2010; Rose & Walker 2004; Bennett 2013; inter alia) and other surface correspondence theories of harmony and disharmony are theories of segmental correspondence. The constraints in these theories refer to segments as featurally uniform units, and do not have a way of referencing their internal phases.
    [Show full text]