Tonal Placement in Tashlhiyt How an Intonation System Accommodates to Adverse Phonological Environments
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Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt How an intonation system accommodates to adverse phonological environments Timo B. Roettger language Studies in Laboratory Phonology 3 science press Studies in Laboratory Phonology Chief Editor: Martine Grice Editors: Doris Mücke, Taehong Cho In this series: 1. Cangemi, Francesco. Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian. 2. Drager, Katie. Linguistic variation, identity construction, and cognition. 3. Roettger, Timo B. Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt: How an intonation system accommodates to adverse phonological environments. ISSN: 2363-5576 Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt How an intonation system accommodates to adverse phonological environments Timo B. Roettger language science press Timo B. Roettger. 2017. Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt: How an intonation system accommodates to adverse phonological environments (Studies in Laboratory Phonology 3). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/137 © 2017, Timo B. Roettger Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-944675-99-2 (Digital) 978-3-96110-008-8 (Hardcover) 978-3-96110-009-5 (Softcover) ISSN: 2363-5576 DOI:10.5281/zenodo.814472 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Sebastian Nordhoff, Timo B. Roettger Illustration: Sebastian Nordhoff Proofreading: Alexis Michaud, Amr Zawawy, Andreas Hölzl, Eitan Grossman, Eran Asoulin, Ikmi Nur Oktavianti, Jason Mattausch, Klara Kim, Maria Isabel Maldonado, Myke Brinkerhoff, Teresa Proto Fonts: Linux Libertine, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Acknowledgements vii List of abbreviations xi 1 Hic sunt dracones 1 2 Theoretical background 5 2.1 Phonetics and phonology ...................... 5 2.2 Suprasegmental phonology ..................... 8 2.2.1 Prosodic structure ..................... 10 2.2.2 Intonation .......................... 13 2.3 Tonal events ............................. 15 2.3.1 Edge tones .......................... 16 2.3.2 Pitch accents ........................ 17 2.4 Tune-text-association ........................ 17 2.4.1 Tune-text-adjustments ................... 19 2.4.2 The representation of tune-text-adjustments ....... 23 2.5 Summary ............................... 27 3 Tashlhiyt, a Berber language 31 3.1 The Imazighen ............................ 31 3.2 Historical overview ......................... 33 3.3 Berber in Agadir ........................... 35 3.4 Tashlhiyt ............................... 36 3.4.1 Orthography ........................ 36 3.4.2 Phonology .......................... 37 3.4.3 Morphology ......................... 39 3.4.4 Syntax ............................ 39 4 Word stress in Tashlhiyt 43 4.1 Word stress: a working definition ................. 43 Contents 4.2 Evidence for word stress in Tashlhiyt ............... 45 4.2.1 Early observations ..................... 45 4.2.2 Gordon and Nafi (2012) ................... 46 4.3 Production study: Word stress in Tashlhiyt revisited ....... 48 4.3.1 Method ........................... 48 4.3.2 Results ............................ 52 4.4 Summary ............................... 59 5 The intonation of questions and contrastive focus in Tashlhiyt 61 5.1 Introduction ............................. 61 5.2 Theoretical background: questions and focus ........... 62 5.2.1 Questions: a working definition .............. 62 5.2.2 Focus: a working definition ................ 63 5.3 The intonation of questions and focus ............... 64 5.3.1 The intonation of questions ................ 64 5.3.2 The intonation of focus ................... 66 5.3.3 Intonational differences between marking questions and marking focus ........................ 67 5.4 Questions and contrastive focus in Tashlhiyt: qualitative obser- vations ................................ 68 5.4.1 Questions in Tashlhiyt ................... 69 5.4.2 Contrastive focus in Tashlhiyt ............... 70 5.4.3 Intonational differences between flagging questions and marking contrastive focus in Tashlhiyt .......... 72 5.5 Production study .......................... 72 5.5.1 Method ........................... 72 5.5.2 Results: pitch scaling .................... 76 5.5.3 Results: pitch peak timing ................. 80 5.5.4 Discussion .......................... 83 5.6 Perception study ........................... 89 5.6.1 Method ........................... 90 5.6.2 Results and discussion ................... 92 5.7 Summary ............................... 95 6 Tonal placement in adverse phonological environments 97 6.1 Introduction ............................. 97 6.2 Tonal placement in absence of sonorants ............. 98 6.3 The status of schwa in Tashlhiyt: a review ............ 101 6.3.1 The epenthetic vowel account ............... 101 iv Contents 6.3.2 The transitional vocoid account .............. 102 6.4 Production study .......................... 108 6.4.1 Method ........................... 108 6.4.2 Results and discussion ................... 110 6.5 The status of schwa revisited .................... 118 6.5.1 Schwa as a sociolinguistic marker ............. 118 6.5.2 Schwa as reflecting gestural reorganisation ....... 119 6.5.3 Schwa as a prosodic marker ................ 125 6.6 Summary ............................... 129 7 Towards an intonational analysis 131 7.1 Introduction ............................. 131 7.2 Recapitulation of observations ................... 131 7.3 Analysis of the rise-falls ...................... 133 7.3.1 Rise-falls in Tashlhiyt: primary association to prosodic constituents ......................... 134 7.3.2 The internal structure of the rise-fall ........... 138 7.3.3 Secondary association to tone bearing units ....... 141 7.4 Formalising variability ....................... 145 7.4.1 Discrete variability in intonation ............. 145 7.4.2 Gradient variability in intonation ............. 148 7.5 Summary ............................... 151 8 Concluding remarks and future directions 153 8.1 Tonal placement without word stress ............... 153 8.2 Phonotactic restrictions on tonal placement ............ 154 8.3 Future directions ........................... 158 Appendix 161 A.1 Media Access ............................. 161 A.2 Participant Information ....................... 161 References 163 Index 183 Name index ................................. 183 Language index .............................. 189 Subject index ................................ 191 v Acknowledgements The person I would like to express my deepest gratitude to is my supervisor Martine Grice. She was my most important advisor through my academic life and she constantly advanced my development with her unique and charming way of giving me feedback. From her, I learned how to ask the right questions and how to communicate these questions in a precise and diplomatic way. Martine always provided the right amount of support and pressure I needed, while leaving me great freedom in finding my way through the jungle of academia. She always had an ear for any kind of problem, be it overly dramatic doubts about the scientific method itself or be it being lost in the process of writing. She always believed in me and my development as a scientist and cheered me up on cloudy days. I truly believe she did not only make me a good linguist but will always be a personal role model. Thank you, Martine. I would like to express my gratitude to Rachid Ridouane. He constantly ad- vanced my understanding of Tashlhiyt and generously introduced me to his home in Morocco, to his culture, and to his heritage. He led me through the depths of the Agadir Souk, taught me the art of pouring Moroccan tea, and warmly welcomed me in the midst of his family and friends. I am very grate- ful to these memories. Thank you, Rachid. I also thank all members of the faculty of Amazigh studies at the Ibn Zohr Uni- versity in Agadir. Without the help of the faculty, none of the data could have been collected. In this context, one man deserves particular credit: Abderrah- mane Charki helped us find consultants, organise our recordings, and conduct our experiments. Even though he constantly ate all the chocolate that was sup- posed to be for our consultants, he did a terrific job and made my life inthe field much easier. I am very happy to have met him. Generally, I am gratefulto all consultants that patiently participated in my tiresome experiments. It was a beautiful experience full of positivity and support. Tenemmirt, Agadir. Bodo Winter has played a major role in my scientific and personal develop- ment. He was always two steps ahead of me and that way sparked my interest with his enthusiastic and positive way of looking at things. Over the many years, he has become my teacher and a dear friend. Acknowledgements The first person to incubate my early interest in language was Kay González- Vilbazo. He taught the introduction to linguistics at the department of German language and literature in Cologne. He told us the most interesting narratives about the mesmerising nature of Universal Grammar, genetically endowed lan- guage acquisition devices, and sign language