DOCSLIB.ORG

Exceptional Stress and Reduced Vowels in Munster Irish Anton Kukhto

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Exceptional Stress and Reduced Vowels in Munster Irish Anton Kukhto Exceptional stress and reduced vowels in Munster Irish Anton Kukhto Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected] ABSTRACT 1.2. Exceptions to the basic pattern This paper focuses on reduced vowels in one of the Munster dialects of Modern Irish, Gaeilge Chorca There exist, however, numerous exceptions to this Dhuibhne. In this dialect, lexical stress depends on rule. Some are caused by the morphological structure syllable weight: heavy syllables (i.e. syllables that of the word. Thus, some verbal inflection morphemes contain phonologically long vowels) attract stress; if exceptionally attract lexical stress, e.g. fógróidh (sé) [foːgǝˈroːgj] ‘(he) will announce’, while others fail to there are none, stress is initial. There exist exceptions, j j one of them being peninitial stress in words with no do so contrary, e.g. molaimíd [ˈmoləm iːd ] ‘we heavy syllables and the string /ax/ in the second praise’; for more details on such cases, see [21]. Other syllable. Instead of deriving this pattern from the exceptions are lexical in the sense that the stress is properties of /x/ in combination with /a/ as has been unpredictable and does not obey the general laws done in much previous work, the paper argues for the outlined above. These are often found to exhibit presence of a phonologically reduced vowel in the anomalous behaviour in other Irish dialects as well, first syllable. The paper argues that such vowels are not only in the South, cf. tobac [tǝˈbak] ‘tobacco’ or phonetically and phonologically different from bricfeasta [brʲikˈfʲastǝ] ‘breakfast’. underlying full vowels that underwent a post-lexical Another class of exceptions seems to stem from process of vowel reduction. the fact that certain consonants contribute to syllable weight. There are words with peninitial stress, where Keywords: Irish, stress, vowel reduction. the first and third syllables are light and the second syllable contains a sequence /ax/, e.g. bacach 1. INTRODUCTION [bəˈkax] ‘lame; poor’ [20]. I’ll primarily concerned with this type of exceptions in this paper. 1.1. Basic pattern of stress assignment 1.3. Exceptional /ax/ Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (henceforth, GCD) is one of the Southern (Munster) dialects of Modern Irish Exceptional primary stress falling on a syllable spoken on the Dingle peninsula in Co. Kerry, Ireland. containing the sequence /ax/ in words like bacach are According to the 2011 census, a total of 9,236 people already mentioned by Henebry [7]. Loth [13], who living on the peninsula speak Irish, of which only 707 worked on the Irish of Ballingeary in West Cork, is use it daily outside the educational system. apparently the first author to observe that: Unlike most other dialects of Irish, where initial /ax/ can only be stressed in the second stress prevails [8], primary lexical stress in Munster syllable if not surrounded by long vowels; Irish is weight-dependent and can occur on any of the 3rd person singular verbal suffix -adh in first three syllables [20]. Generally, heavy syllables conditional (conditionnel) or past habitual (H) contain a long vowel or a diphthong, and light (imparfait), pronounced as /ax/, is never syllables (L) contain a short vowel. The basic pattern stressed unlike the nominal suffix -ach; of stress assignment is cited after [21] in (1) and is in both nouns and adjectives with light schematised in (2), where X stands for a syllable of syllables and /ax/ in the second syllable, the any weight and brackets denote the repetition of a stress does not always fall on the second syllable of the indicated type any number of times. syllable, probably due to some consonantal Below, I adopt the transcription used in [20]; see [9] clusters blocking its “forwarding” (cf. for an extensive list of examples and an OT-analysis, cnocach ‘montagneux; hilly’ or fleascach which is not the focus of this paper. ‘jeune homme; youth’). Sjoestedt [23] points out that in two-syllable nouns (1) Word stress falls on the second syllable if it is with a short vowel in the first syllable and ‑ach(t) in heavy, on the third syllable if it is heavy and the the second, the stress is on the second syllable in all preceding syllables are light, and on the first cases when there is no /h/ or consonant cluster with a syllable in all other cases. plosive or a sibilant and /r/ before the suffix (2) XˈHX(X) LLˈH(X) ˈX(L) ˈHLH(X) ‑(e)ach(t). Later, Blankenhorn [3] notes that the third 1565 syllable with /ax/ does not attract stress. The approach present underlyingly, not a full vowel. We can then that derives such exceptional stress placement from expect this phonological /ə/ to be reflected uniformly, the properties of /ax/ and its inability to attract stress providing a target for phonetic realizations; on the from other segmental properties of the word is later contrary, phonetic variability would be expected of a taken up in [1; 3; 4; 6]; details differ, however. full vowel if it were present in the lexicon. Gussmann [6] seems to be the first to suggest that In 2014, I conducted a study with four speakers of exceptional stress on /ax/ might be due to properties GCD in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht. The speakers of the vowel in the first syllable of such words. were presented with a reading questionnaire However, he rejects the presence of a phonologically consisting of 64 words inside the carrier-phrase reduced vowel there citing words like fathach ‘giant’ Scríobh se X ar an mbord ‘He wrote X on the table’. or lathach ‘swamp’ from West Muskerry, where X was replaced by words of the prosodic structure “some speakers stress the second syllable even in this LˈH(X) with various combinations of vowels in the type of word” [16]. This possibility is later first and the second syllables. In the pronunciations entertained by Green [5], who uses the constraint drawn from the questionnaire, measurements of NON-HEAD(ə) penalising stress on an underlyingly duration as well as of F1 and F2 for vowels of the first reduced vowel on a par with PKPROM [24] to account syllable before stressed /a/ and long vowels were for the special prosodic prominence of /ax/. performed manually using Praat [2]. Iosad [9], following a conjecture by Ó Sé [20], The samples were tested for homogeneity using a suggests that peninitial stress in words with /ax/ might non-parametric Wilcoxon rank sum criterion; if the be synchronically due to the presence of a reduced distributions are not significantly different, then the vowel in the first syllable of such words, not the segments must belong to a single class. The most additional weight of syllables with /ax/ or any special significant results were shown by the division of properties of the vowel in the second syllable, citing vowels before the low stressed /a/ and /ɑː/ vs. before the process of stress retraction that can occur in all other stressed long vowels, see Table 1 and a Munster Irish (see below). He concludes that the boxplot for duration in Figure 1. status of the vowel in the first syllable remains Table 1: Wilcoxon criterion values and p-values for unclear and leaves it for further scrutiny. duration (sec.) and F1 (Hz) before low vs. non-low V 2. ANALYSIS Speaker W value p-value 1 t 603.5 0,0000005452 2.1. Proposal: Underlying schwa F1 576.5 0.005774 2 t 547 0,00001512 Developing the conjectures in [5; 9; 20], I claim that F1 458 0.000656 in words with exceptional stress on /ax/ in the second 3 t 430.5 0,000002665 syllable, the first syllable contains a phonologically F 393 0.0001414 reduced vowel /ə/, which blocks the stress and makes 1 4 t 297.5 0.0003465 it shift to the second syllable. This approach diverges F 271 0.004272 from [5] in its treatment of /ax/. While Green argues 1 for both the schwa in the first syllable and a special Figure 1: Vowel duration (sec.) in prestressed syllable prominence of /ax/ in the second, I try to show that before low vs. non-low V across 4 speakers the latter condition can be effectively dispensed with. The former condition, however, is necessary to provide a unified account of words with peninitial stress on /ax/, adverbs of the type anseo [ənˈso] ‘here’ and inflected prepositions like agam ‘at me’ in their emphatic form, agamsa [əˈgumsə] ‘at me!’, which also do not allow initial stress (as well as words with /a/ in the second syllable in the absence of /x/). I also present evidence in favour of the view that vowel reduction in GCD is not a unitary process: while /ə/ is present in the lexicon, there also exists a post-lexical process of vowel reduction. 2.2. Phonetic evidence Let us suppose that in the first syllable of words like As Figure 1 demonstrates, the distribution of the bacach [bəˈkax], a phonologically reduced vowel is durations of vowels in the first syllable before /a/ and 1566 /ɑː/ is more compact than before all other stressed The third argument is provided by the process of long vowels. The data also show that before stressed stress retraction. It involves leftward replacement of non-low long vowels of the second syllable, different lexical stress in certain words when the distance short vowels are possible [a ɔ ʊ e ə]. Less variability between the underlying stressed syllable in them and is found before the stressed /ɑː/, where only [ə ɔ ʊ] the stressed syllable (trigger) in the immediately are possible according to our data; see, however, following words within an intonational phrase is less examples with pre-stressed [a] in [20].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Meter of Classical Arabic Poetry
    Pegs, Cords, and Ghuls: Meter of Classical Arabic Poetry Hazel Scott Haverford College Department of Linguistics, Swarthmore College Fall 2009 There are many reasons to read poetry, filled with heroics and folly, sweeping metaphors and engaging rhymes. It can reveal much about a shared cultural history and the depths of the human soul; for linguists, it also provides insights into the nature of language itself. As a particular subset of a language, poetry is one case study for understanding the use of a language and the underlying rules that govern it. This paper explores the metrical system of classical Arabic poetry and its theoretical representations. The prevailing classification is from the 8th century C.E., based on the work of the scholar al-Khaliil, and I evaluate modern attempts to situate the meters within a more universal theory. I analyze the meter of two early Arabic poems, and observe the descriptive accuracy of al-Khaliil’s system, and then provide an analysis of the major alternative accounts. By incorporating linguistic concepts such as binarity and prosodic constraints, the newer models improve on the general accessibility of their theories with greater explanatory potential. The use of this analysis to identify and account for the four most commonly used meters, for example, highlights the significance of these models over al-Khaliil’s basic enumerations. The study is situated within a discussion of cultural history and the modern application of these meters, and a reflection on the oral nature of these poems. The opportunities created for easier cross-linguistic comparisons are crucial for a broader understanding of poetry, enhanced by Arabic’s complex levels of metrical patterns, and with conclusions that can inform wider linguistic study.* Introduction Classical Arabic poetry is traditionally characterized by its use of one of the sixteen * I would like to thank my advisor, Professor K.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 Theoretical Issues
    Chapter 1 Theoretical issues —… no language has a rule stressing the penultimate syllable unless it begins with a voiced consonant, in which case one stresses the antepenultimate syllable“ (Hyman 1985: 96) —(Karo) stress can be predicted by the onset of the last syllable: if it is a voiced stop consonant, then the stress shifts one syllable to the left“ (Gabas 1999: 39) 1.1 Syllable weight The notion of syllable weight is pervasive in phonology. Everywhere we look there are data that make reference to it. The idea behind syllable weight is that depending on their structure, syllables are treated in a different way; thus if a syllable contains a long vowel or - in some languages - a short vowel followed by a coda consonant, then it is heavier than one including a short vowel, i.e. VV, VC > V. The effects of this distinction are most prominently seen in stress, where in many languages heavy syllables attract stress more than light ones. Importantly, VC is heavy in some languages, e.g. Hopi, but light in others, e.g. Lenakel (see below). In Hopi (Gussenhoven and Jacobs 2005: 145), the first syllable is stressed if it is heavy (C)VV or (C)VC [(1a)], but if it is (C)V light, then the second gets stress [(1b)]1. (1) Hopi: VV/VC=heavy; V=light a. q1q .t1.som.pi ‘headbands’ soÂ9.ja ‘planting stick’ b. q1.t1. som.pi ‘headband’ ko.jo. Mo ‘turkey’ 1 In this chapter, unless stated otherwise, the acute accent marks primary stress, the grave accent means secondary stress, and underlining denotes the reduplicated portion.
    [Show full text]
  • Audible Punctuation Performative Pause In
    PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/140838 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-25 and may be subject to change. AUDIBLE PUNCTUATION Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody Audible Punctuation: Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. Th.L.M. Engelen, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 21 mei 2015 om 14.30 uur precies door Ronald Blankenborg geboren op 23 maart 1971 te Eibergen Promotoren: Prof. dr. A.P.M.H. Lardinois Prof. dr. J.B. Lidov (City University New York, Verenigde Staten) Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. M.G.M. van der Poel Prof. dr. E.J. Bakker (Yale University, Verenigde Staten) Prof. dr. M. Janse (Universiteit Gent, België) Copyright©Ronald Blankenborg 2015 ISBN 978-90-823119-1-4 [email protected] [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Printed by Maarse Printing Cover by Gijs de Reus Audible Punctuation: Performative Pause in Homeric Prosody Doctoral Thesis to obtain the degree of doctor from Radboud University Nijmegen on the authority of the Rector Magnificus prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Syllable and Segment in Latin 1
    OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 9/2/2015, SPi Syllable and Segment in Latin RANJAN SEN Preview - Copyrighted Material 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 9/2/2015, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries # Ranjan Sen 2015 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2015 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2014943829 ISBN 978–0–19–966018–6 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, cr04yy Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
    [Show full text]
  • Syllable Weight: Phonetic Duration and Phonemic Contrast*
    Syllable Weight: Phonetic Duration and Phonemic Contrast* Mee-Jin Ahn CKyung Hee University) Ahn, Mee-Jin. (2003). Syllable weight: phonetic duration and phonemic contrast. Language Research 39(2), 355-381. This paper addresses two questions: why, in quantity-sensitive systems, do evv and eve syllables constitute better stress targets than ev syllables, and why does the weight of eve syllables vary? I argue that evv syllables are optimal stress targets because their long vowel duration allows for the best expression of the phonetic correlates of stress. Although eve syllables appear to attract stress in some languages, this attraction should be understood as a consequence of stress repulsion from ev syllables. The stress attraction of eve syllables occurs only where ev syllabYes are subject to positional vowel lengthening and stress-induced lengthenfng. In this position, ev syllables repel stress to preserve the phonemic contrast of vowel length. eve syllables are protected from extreme vowel lengthening in the same positions due to closed syllable shortening. I present exper­ imental evidence from Jordanian Arabic where only evv and eve sylla­ bles attract stress in penultimate position, to support my claim that \'owel lengthening effects in penultimate ev syllables are extreme. As' a result, ev syllables avoid stress to maintain their phonemic vowel length and eve and evv syllables receive stress in the target position. I conclude that eve syllables are not inherent stress attractors at all. Key words: syllable weight, phonetic vowel duration, phonemic vowel length contrast, Jordanian Arabic 1. Introduction The position of stress is sensitive to the distinction between heavy and light syllables in many languages.
    [Show full text]
  • The Value of Irish Schwa: an Acoustic Analysis of Epenthetic Vowels
    The value of Irish schwa: An acoustic analysis of epenthetic vowels Kerry McCullough∗ Department of Linguistics University of Kansas; Lawrence, KS, USA This study was conducted in an effort to learn more about the phonology of the Irish language. The research is intended to be a phonetic analysis of one of the phonological processes characteristic to Celtic languages. The present study examines the extent to which schwa epenthesis in Irish acts as a neutral- ization process. A list of 30 Irish words acting as near-minimal pairs was compiled for this study. Vowel environment and syllable count matched across pairs, and only the vowel itself differed in whether it was epenthetic or underlying. Six native-Irish speakers were recruited for this experiment representing all three major dialects of the language: three speakers from Cork (Munster), two speakers from Donegal (Ulster), one speaker from Connemara (Connacht). Participants read from the word list, reading each word twice. Acoustic analysis focused on two measurements: vowel duration and formant frequencies. The formants for each vowel type are comparable, but the difference in duration is significant, indicating that Irish schwa epenthesis is an incomplete neutralization process. While schwa epenthesis has been reported to create an identical phonological form to that of the underlying schwa, the significant difference in vowel duration indicates a residual contrast of the original underlying forms. Keywords: epenthesis, neutralization, Irish, vowel duration 1. Introduction Epenthesis is a recognized neutralization process found in a variety of world languages including Arabic, Welsh, Mono, and Dutch (Hall, 2006, 2011). The insertion of an underlyingly absent vowel neutralizes pre-existing contrasts between different lexical items.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sanskrit Source of the Tocharian 4×25-Syllable Meter Dieter Gunkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
    The Sanskrit source of the Tocharian 4×25-syllable meter Dieter Gunkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Abstract The well-attested Tocharian 4×25-syllable meter arose via the borrowing of the Sanskrit Krauñcapadā, a syllabo-quantitative meter attested only in Sanskrit metrical treatises and a buddhastotra found in the Kizil caves whose stanza likewise consists of four 25-syllable verses. The Tocharians adopted the three caesurae prescribed for the Krauñcapadā in the metrical treatises as well as two further “caesurals” that are present in the stotra but not in the treatises. They gave up regulating syllable weight, presumably because Tocharian phonology did not support it. As a result, the original motivation for the location of the caesurae, which divide the Krauñcapadā verse into moraically balanced half- and quarter-verses, was obfuscated, yielding a syllable-counting meter with fixed caesurae and cola of unequal lengths. 1. Tocharian meter as an indigenous tradition Were Tocharian meters influenced by Indic meters, and if so, to what extent? Since the outset of Tocharian studies, the prevalent opinion has been that the Tocharian metrical tradition, which is shared by both Tocharian languages, is independent of the Indian tradition. In Sieg and Siegling’s original formulation, “Die tocharische Metrik scheint selbständig dazustehen und nicht der indischen entlehnt zu sein” (1921:x).1 The supposed independence of the metrical form of Tocharian poetry may seem surprising given that the poetic texts are translations and adaptations of Buddhist Sanskrit originals. Furthermore, the Tocharian Buddhists did adopt the form of narration known as campū, in which prose and verse alternate.2 However, Tibetan shows that it is possible to retain and modify indigenous meters for the translation/adaptation of Sanskrit texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Onsets Contribute to Syllable Weight: Statistical Evidence from Stress and Meter
    Onsets Contribute to Syllable Weight: Statistical Evidence from Stress and Meter The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Ryan, Kevin M. 2014. Onsets Contribute to Syllable Weight: Statistical Evidence from Stress and Meter. Language 90, no. 2: 309– 341. Published Version doi:10.1353/lan.2014.0029 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12490320 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#OAP Kevin M. Ryan Harvard University Preprint version of Language 90.2: 309{41 Onsets contribute to syllable weight: Statistical evidence from stress and meter∗ Abstract While some accounts of syllable weight deny a role for onsets, onset-sensitive weight criteria have received renewed attention in recent years (e.g. Gordon 2005, Topintzi 2010). This article presents new evidence supporting onsets as factors in weight. First, in complex stress systems such as those of English and Russian, onset length is a significant attractor of stress both in the lexicon and in nonce probes. This effect is highly systematic and unlikely, it is argued, to be driven by analogy alone. Second, in flexible quantitative meters (e.g. in Sanskrit), poets preferentially align longer onsets with heavier metrical positions, all else being equal. A theory of syllable weight is proposed in which the domain of weight begins not with the rime but with the p-center (perceptual center) of the syllable, which is perturbed by properties of the onset.
    [Show full text]
  • Online Companion to a Historical Phonology of English
    A Historical Phonology of English Donka Minkova © Donka Minkova, 2014 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.euppublishing.com Typeset in 10.5/12 Janson by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 3467 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 3468 2 (paperback) ISBN 978 0 7486 3469 9 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 0 7486 7755 9 (epub) The right of Donka Minkova to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Acknowledgements x List of abbreviations and symbols xii A note on the Companion to A Historical Phonology of English xv 1 Periods in the history of English 1 1.1 Periods in the history of English 2 1.2 Old English (450–1066) 2 1.3 Middle English (1066–1476) 9 1.4 Early Modern English (1476–1776) 15 1.5 English after 1776 17 1.6 The evidence for early pronunciation 20 2 The sounds of English 24 2.1 The consonants of PDE 24 2.1.1 Voicing 26 2.1.2 Place of articulation 27 2.1.3 Manner of articulation 29 2.1.4 Short and long consonants 31 2.2 The vowels of PDE 32 2.2.1 Short and long vowels 35 2.2.2 Complexity: monophthongs and diphthongs 37 2.3 The syllable: some basics 39 2.3.1 Syllable structure 39 2.3.2 Syllabifi cation 40 2.3.3 Syllable weight 43 2.4 Notes on vowel representation 45 2.5 Phonological change: some types and causes 46 3 Discovering the earliest links: Indo- European
    [Show full text]
  • The Sanskrit Source of the Tocharian 4X25-Syllable Meter
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Classical Studies Faculty Publications Classical Studies 2016 The aS nskrit Source of the Tocharian 4x25-Syllable Meter Dieter C. Gunkel University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.richmond.edu/classicalstudies-faculty- publications Part of the Indo-European Linguistics and Philology Commons Recommended Citation Gunkel, Dieter. "The aS nskrit Source of the Tocharian 4x25 -Syllable Meter." In Sahasram Ati Srajas: Indo-Iranian and Indo-European studies in honor of Stephanie W. Jamison, edited by Dieter Gunkel, Joshua Timothy Katz, Brent Harmon Vine, and Michael L. Weiss, 82-95. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press, 2016. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Classical Studies at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classical Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Sanskrit Source of the Tocharian 4x25-Syllable Meter mlSJSJSJSjSJSJSJSJSJSJSJSJSJSJS/S/S!Slml DIETER GUNKEL I Tocharian meter as an indigenous tradition Were Tocharian meters influenced by Indic meters, and ifso, to what extent? Since the outset ofTocharian studies, the prevalent opinion has been that the Tocharian met­ rical tradition, which is shared by both Tocharian languages, is independent of the Indian tradition. In Sieg and Siegling's original formulation, "Die tocharische Metrik: scheint selbstandig dazustehen und nicht der indischen entlehnt zu sein" (1921:x). 1 The supposed independence of the metrical form ofTocharian poetry may seem sur­ prising given that the poetic texts are translations and adaptations of Buddhist San­ skrit originals.
    [Show full text]
  • Accent, Syllable Structure, and Morphology in Ancient Greek
    Accent, Syllable Structure, and Morphology in Ancient Greek Paul Kiparsky Stanford University 1 Opacity and cyclicity Introduction. In ancient Greek, the pitch accent of most words depends on the syl- labification assigned to underlying representations, while a smaller, morphologically identifiable class of derived words is accented on the basis of the surface syllable structure, which results from certain contraction and deletion processes. Noyer 1997 proposes a cyclic analysis of these facts and argues that they are incompatible with parallel OT assumptions. His central claim is that the pre-surface syllabification to which accent is assigned in the bulk of the Greek vocabulary does not occur at a “level privileged by UG,” such as the word level or the “cycle-final” level, but simply at an arbitrary point in the derivation. (p. 502). The implication is that extrinsic rule or- dering is required to do justice to the accent system. Thus, Noyer’s work presents a challenge to any version of OT phonology. In this paper, I take up the challenge and argue that, although fully parallel OT may not be up to dealing with these accentual facts, the stratal version of OT based on Lexical Phonology and Phonology (stratal OT, or LPM-OT, Kiparsky 2000, to appear) provides a much better analysis of them than phonology with ordered rules does. Thus, Greek accentuation and syllabification bear on two theoretically problematic issues: PHONOLOGICAL OPACITY and CYCLICITY. To understand how the accentual constraints interact with the rest of the phonology and morphology we need an accurate formulation of the accentual constraints them- selves and of the phonological representations to which they apply.
    [Show full text]
  • "Syllable Weight." (PDF)
    Syllable Weight* Matthew Gordon University of California, Santa Barbara 1 Introduction The goal of this chapter is to explore the role which phonetics plays in shaping the phonology of syllable weight. Standard (moraic and skeletal slot) treatments of weight assume that weight criteria (i.e. what syllables count as “heavy”) may vary from language to language; but that all phonological processes within a given language will employ a uniform weight criterion. An extensive survey of weight-sensitive phonological phenomena shows the very opposite, however: weight criteria are frequently non-uniform within a given language, but there is considerable consistency for each particular weight-sensitive phenomenon. In this chapter, I adopt a phonetic approach to explaining this finding, focusing on the particular cases of weight-sensitive stress and tone. I argue that stress and tone systems respect different criteria of weight because of the differences found in the phonetic implementation of stress and tone. In addition, I argue that phonetics can play a role in accounting for cross-linguistic variation in weight criteria for a given process: such variation can be attributed to independent phonetic properties of these languages, which are in turn grounded in other phonological properties such as the inventory of coda consonants. I will argue in addition that the influence of phonetics in phonology is not direct, but rather is mediated by structural considerations. In particular, languages employ weight distinctions which operate over PHONOLOGICALLY SYMMETRICAL classes of syllables, even if this means not exploiting the phonetically most effective weight distinction(s). Finally, I will argue that the ingredients of process-specificity of weight criteria, phonetic effectiveness, and phonological simplicity together play a crucial role in the ranking of a set of formal Optimality-theoretic constraints governing weight-sensitive phenomena.
    [Show full text]