DOCSLIB.ORG

Areal Features and Linguistic Reconstruction in Africa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Areal Features and Linguistic Reconstruction in Africa Areal features Hyman et al. Areal features and linguistic reconstruction in Introduction Africa Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Larry M. Hyman1, Peter S. E. Jenks, Geoffrey Bacon, Nicolas Results 2 Tone Baier, Emily Clem , Matthew Faytak, Spencer Lamoureux, Vowel systems Florian Lionnet, John Merrill, Nicholas Rolle, and Hannah Sande3 Conclusion References [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] University of California, Berkeley 8th World Congress of African Linguistics Workshop 3: Areal Phenomena in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa 23 August 2015 Is Africa a linguistic area? Areal features Some scholars have claimed that Africa as a whole can be Hyman et al. considered a linguistic area Introduction Heine and Leyew (2008): 11 \African" linguistic properties Methodology Creissels et al. (2008): Africa forms a linguistic area based The ALFA Project on morphosyntactic data Tone database Results Others reject the idea of Africa as a single linguistic area, Tone but identify smaller linguistic areas on the continent Vowel systems Conclusion G¨uldemann(2008): The \Macro-Sudan Belt" is a References linguistic area Clements and Rialland (2008): Africa can be divided into 6 phonological areas Creissels (2015): West Africa is a linguistic area based on morphosyntactic tone and other features. More detailed study of the linguistic geography of Africa is needed in order to identify both macro- and micro-areas (Heine and Nurse, 2008) Goals of this talk Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Based on data from 243 tone systems and 74 vowel Methodology systems, we argue that Africa as a whole does not form a The ALFA Project unified linguistic area Tone database Results Likewise, these data do not provide evidence for the Tone Vowel systems Macro-Sudan Belt as a unified phonological area Conclusion Instead, we find evidence for smaller linguistic micro-areas References South of Lake Chad The Nigeria/Cameroon border The Ghana/Togo/Burkina Faso cluster The Kru/Mande Zone Overview Areal features Hyman et al. 1 Introduction Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project 2 Methodology Tone database The ALFA Project Results Tone Tone database Vowel systems Conclusion References 3 Results Tone Vowel systems 4 Conclusion Areal Linguistic Features of Africa (ALFA) Project Areal features The ALFA Project is the work of 11 linguists at UC Hyman et al. Berkeley Introduction We are gathering data on 7 linguistic features that have Methodology The ALFA been claimed to be \African" Project Tone database Tone Results ATR systems Tone Vowel systems Nasal vowels Conclusion Syllable and word structure References Verb extensions Serial verbs S AUX O V For each feature, we have created a database of languages coded for key properties We created a web application to map the languages based on these properties to identify areal and genetic patterns Language mapper Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Language mapper (Ewert, 2015) is a web application Tone database Results Input: spreadsheets of data, Glottolog language data Tone (Hammarstr¨omet al., 2015) Vowel systems Output: a Google map of language data letter-coded with Conclusion genetic information and color-coded for linguistic features References (Google, 2015) Tone database Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction We gathered tone data from a database of 662 tone Methodology languages (Hyman, 2015) The ALFA Project 243 African languages Tone database Results The data was recoded with a numerical system we Tone designed to encode equivalencies across different traditions Vowel systems Conclusion of representation References Our coding allowed us to look at numerous features of tone inventories including: Number and identity of level tones Number and identity of downstepped tones Number, direction, and identity of contour tones African languages by number of surface level tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Languages were coded by the number of non-contour Methodology tones in their surface tone inventories The ALFA Project Tone database This count included downstepped tones as constituting a Results separate surface level Tone Vowel systems The goal of this analysis was to separate languages based Conclusion on the number of contrastive pitch levels they distinguish References on the surface There are several micro-areas defined by the number of levels that languages distinguish in their surface tone inventories Number of surface level tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface level tones - Mande/Kru Zone Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface level tones - Nigeria/Cameroon vs. Southern Bantu Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface level tones - Summary Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Mande languages near Kru have more surface levels Project Tone database Bantoid languages near the Nigeria/Cameroon border Results Tone have more levels that Bantu languages in southern Africa Vowel systems There are three areas of three level tones Conclusion Ghana/Togo/Burkina Faso References South of Lake Chad Ethiopia/Sudan African languages with three surface level tones Areal features Hyman et al. As seen in the previous maps of number of surface level Introduction tones across African languages, the most common number Methodology The ALFA of levels is 3, especially in the Macro-Sudan belt. Project Tone database The following maps show only those African languages Results which have exactly three level tones, differentiating them Tone Vowel systems by which tones are in their inventories: Conclusion Low, Mid, High References Low, !High, High Low, !Low, High Low, High, Superhigh We recognize that which three levels a given language has is often a matter of analysis. Three surface level tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Three surface level tones - West Africa Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Three surface level tones - Summary Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Languages in Southern Africa have downstep. Results Tone Bantoid languages nearer the Nigeria/Cameroon border Vowel systems are more likely to have a mid tone. Conclusion References Languages south of Lake Chad have a mid tone. African languages by number of surface contour tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project We have seen the distribution of surface level tones, and Tone database now we turn to surface contours. Results Tone We find that high numbers of contour tones are found in Vowel systems Conclusion the Kru/Mande zone of southern West Africa. References There are also marked areas that lack contour tones entirely. Number of surface contour tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface contour tones - West Africa Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface contour tones - Mande/Kru Zone Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface contour tones - Nigeria/Cameroon vs. Southern Bantu Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Results Tone Vowel systems Conclusion References Number of surface contour tones - Summary Areal features Hyman et al. There is a high concentration of numerous contour tones Introduction in the Kru/Mande-zone, but not in Mande languages Methodology The ALFA further away. Project Tone database There are sporadic languages with high numbers of Results Tone contours throughout the rest of the Macro-Sudan belt (cf. Vowel systems Central Sudanic). Conclusion References Bantoid languages on the Nigeria/Cameroon border tend to have more contours than Bantu languages in southern Africa There are two regions that lack contour tones entirely Ghana/Togo/Burkina Faso South of Lake Chad Are languages with a high number of level tones more likely to have a high number of contours? Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project The Ghana/Togo/Burkina Faso cluster is an area of Tone database 3-level tones that lacks contours Results Tone Central Sudanic languages have 3 level tones and most Vowel systems Conclusion have no contours References The Kru/Mande zone has high numbers of level tones and contours African languages by direction of contour tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Here we are interested whether falling versus rising Results contour tones pattern together areally. Tone Vowel systems We find little evidence that the direction of contours is an Conclusion areal feature; however, the Kru/Mande zone is the only References area where multiple languages show complex contours. Direction of surface contour tones Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database
Load more

Recommended publications
  • High Vowel Fricativization As an Areal Feature of the Northern Cameroon Grassfields
    High vowel fricativization as an areal feature of the northern Cameroon Grassfields Matthew Faytak WOCAL 8, | August 23, 2015 Overview High vowel fricativization is an areal or contact feature of the northern Grassfields, which carries implications for Niger-Congo reconstructions 1. What is (not) a fricativized vowel? 2. Where are they (not)? 3. Why is this interesting? Overview High vowel fricativization is an areal or contact feature of the northern Grassfields, which carries implications for Niger-Congo reconstructions 1. What is (not) a fricativized vowel? 2. Where are they (not)? 3. Why is this interesting? Fricative vowels Vowels with a fricative-like supralaryngeal constriction, which may or may not consistently result in audible fricative noise Not intended to encompass: • Devoiced or voiceless vowels Smith (2003) • Pre-/post-aspirated vowels Helgason (2002) Mortensen (2012) • Articulatory overlap at high speech rate • Wall noise sources in high vowels Shadle (1990) Prior mention Vowels that do fit one or both of the given definitions: • Apical vowels in Chinese Lee (2005) Feng (2007) Lee-Kim (2014) • Viby-i, G¨oteborges-i, etc. in Swedish Holmberg (1976) Engstrand et al. (2000) Sch¨otzet al. (2011) • Fricative vowels in Bantoid Medjo Mv´e(1997) Connell (2007) Articulatory evidence of constriction Olson and Meynadier (2015) Articulatory evidence of constriction z v " " High vowel fricativization (HVF) Fricative vowels arise from normal high vowels /i u/, often in tandem with raising of the next-lowest vowels Faytak (2014) i u e o i
    [Show full text]
  • Complexity As L2-Difficulty : Implications for Syntactic Change
    Erschienen in: Theoretical Linguistics ; 45 (2019), 3-4. - S. 183-209 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0012 Theoretical Linguistics 2019; 45(3-4): 183–209 George Walkden* and Anne Breitbarth Complexity as L2-difficulty: Implications for syntactic change https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0012 Abstract: Recent work has cast doubt on the idea that all languages are equally complex; however, the notion of syntactic complexity remains underexplored. Taking complexity to equate to difficulty of acquisition for late L2 acquirers, we propose an operationalization of syntactic complexity in terms of uninterpret- able features. Trudgill’s sociolinguistic typology predicts that sociohistorical situations involving substantial late L2 acquisition should be conducive to simplification, i.e. loss of such features. We sketch a programme for investigat- ing this prediction. In particular, we suggest that the loss of bipartite negation in the history of Low German and other languages indicates that it may be on the right track. Keywords: sociolinguistic typology, syntactic change, L2 acquisition, simplification, Interpretability Hypothesis 1 Context and big picture 1.1 Typology, complexity, and language change The traditional notion that all languages are equally complex, as expressed in Hockett (1958), has recently come under attack from a number of quarters. Notably, in his seminal work Sociolinguistic Typology, Trudgill (2011) has sug- gested that different types of sociolinguistic situation lead to differential sim- plification and complexification: for instance, long-term co-territorial language contact is predicted to lead to additive complexification, whereas short-term contact involving extensive adult second-language (L2) use is predicted to lead to simplification.
    [Show full text]
  • The Diachronic Emergence of Retroflex Segments in Three Languages* 1
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Hochschulschriftenserver - Universität Frankfurt am Main The diachronic emergence of retroflex segments in three languages* Silke Hamann ZAS (Centre for General Linguistics), Berlin [email protected] The present study shows that though retroflex segments can be considered articulatorily marked, there are perceptual reasons why languages introduce this class into their phoneme inventory. This observation is illustrated with the diachronic developments of retroflexes in Norwegian (North- Germanic), Nyawaygi (Australian) and Minto-Nenana (Athapaskan). The developments in these three languages are modelled in a perceptually oriented phonological theory, since traditional articulatorily-based features cannot deal with such processes. 1 Introduction Cross-linguistically, retroflexes occur relatively infrequently. From the 317 languages of the UPSI database (Maddieson 1984, 1986), only 8.5 % have a voiceless retroflex stop [ˇ], 7.3 % a voiced stop [Í], 5.3 % a voiceless retroflex fricative [ß], 0.9 % a voiced fricative [¸], and 5.9 % a retroflex nasal [˜]. Compared to other segmental classes that are considered infrequent, such as a palatal nasal [¯], which occurs in 33.7 % of the UPSID languages, and the uvular stop [q], which occurs in 14.8 % of the languages, the percentages for retroflexes are strikingly low. Furthermore, typically only large segment inventories have a retroflex class, i.e. at least another coronal segment (apical or laminal) is present, as in Sanskrit, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish, and numerous Australian Aboriginal languages. Maddieson’s (1984) database includes only one exception to this general tendency, namely the Dravidian language Kota, which has a retroflex as its only coronal fricative.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Introduction1 Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan
    1. Introduction1 Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan 1. Aims and scope of the volume This volume contains a series of descriptions of around 20 languages (or language groups), spoken across a region that includes most of eastern Turkey, western Iran and northern Iraq (see Fig. 1 for the locations), together with overview articles of sub-regions, and an appendix with selected lexical items from these languages. The region that we refer to here loosely as “Western Asia” is not clearly demar- cated, either politically or topographically, and requires a few words of explana- tion. Essentially it is linked to an ancient cultural core, namely the northern part of Mesopotamia, the upper catchment regions of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The book’s coverage goes beyond Mesopotamia in the narrower sense to include the surrounding mountainous regions of the Zagros in the southeast, and the elevated regions northwards and eastwards across the Anatolian plateau into the outliers of the Caucasus. These areas were all involved, at least economically and stra- tegically, in the succession of empires that arose in and around ancient Mesopo- tamia, beginning with the Sumerians in the third millennium BCE and continuing down to the Ottoman Empire into the dawn of the twentieth century. The sense of a common Kulturraum, while difficult to delineate precisely, is reflected by the growing recognition of linguistic parallels shared among the region’s languages, some of which we take up below. We have further divided the region into five sub-areas, each of which is treated in a section of the volume, with its own overview chapter.
    [Show full text]
  • Areal Features of English in Ireland (Hickey 2012)
    ‘Areal features of English in Ireland’, in: Raymond Hickey (ed.) 2012. Areal Features of the Anglophone World. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton, pp. 79-107. Areal features of English in Ireland Raymond Hickey University of Duisburg and Essen 1. Introduction The notion of linguistic area (from German Sprachbund, lit. ‘language federation’) is one which is often invoked when dealing with languages which share features and are found in a geographically contiguous area. Some of these areas have gained general acceptance in linguistic literature as the evidence for them is quite convincing. These include the Pacific North-West, Meso-America, the Balkans, the Baltic area, Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, Southern India (with Indic / Dravidian languages) to mention just some of the better known instances. Scholars concerned with linguistic areas, vary considerably in their approach and following Campbell (1998: 300) one can distinguish at least two basic orientations in the field: 1) circumstantianlist where authors are content with listing the various features of a putative area and 2) historicist where authors attempt to show that the shared features diffused historically through the languages of an area. The second approach is necessary to avoid the pitfall of raising features which may have arisen by chance to the level of defining characteristics of an area. Furthermore, it is essential to accord relative weight to features under consideration. Those which are typologically unspectacular cannot be appealed to when defining an area. For instance any set of languages or varieties which show a palatalisation of velars – and just that – could hardly be regarded as forming a linguistic area as this is a very general feature.
    [Show full text]
  • Schiffman, Harold F. TITLE Language and Society in South Asia. Final Report
    DOCUMEKT RESUNE ED 127 806 PL 007 948 AUTHOR Shapiro, Michael C.; Schiffman, Harold F. TITLE Language and Society in South Asia. Final Report. INSTITUTION Institute of International Studies (DHEW/OE), Washington, D.C. BUREAU NO BR-110012HH PUB DATE Sep 75 CONTRACT OEC-0-74-2093 NOTE 380p. EDRS PRICE MF-$C.83 Hc-$20.75 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Asian Studies; *Bilingualism; Burmese; Cultural Context; *Dialects; Dialect Studies; Dravidian Languages; Language Classification; *Language Variation; Linguistic Borrowing; Multilingualism; Regional Dialects; Social Dialects; *Sociolinguistics; Tibetan IDENTIFIERS *Asia (South); *Code Switching; Indo Aryan Languages; Munda Languages; Tibeto Burman Languages ABSTRACT This work attempts to provide an overview of liuguistic diversity in South Asia and to place this diversity in a cultural context. The work tries to describe the current state of knowledge concerning socially conditioned language variation in the subcontinent. Each of five major language families contains numerous mutually intelligible and unintelligible dialects. Different dialects of a language may be required for 'written and spoken use and for different social groups. Bilingualism and multilingualism are common for communication between groups. Language choice is important for education, politics, radio and television. Chapter 2 of this book enumerates criteria used in the taxonomy of language forms, discussing a number of theories of dialect formation from the points of view of linguistic innovation and diffusion of linguistic change. Chapter 3 surveys literature on classification of South Asian languages. Chapter 4 considers South Asia as a distinct linguistic area and Chapter 5 evaluates literature on South Asian social dialects. Chapter 6 examines linguistic codes encompassing elements from more than one autonomous language.
    [Show full text]
  • Nominal Plurality in Languages of the Greater Hindukush
    Nominal plurality in languages of the Greater Hindukush Noa Lange Department of Linguistics Bachelor’s Degree Project 15 HE credits General linguistics Kandidatprogrammet i lingvistik Spring term 2015 Supervisor: Henrik Liljegren Examinator: Henrik Liljegren Expert reviewer: Ljuba Veselinova Nominal plurality in languages of the Greater Hindukush Noa Lange Abstract The Greater Hindukush is an area that stretches from northwestern–central Afghanistan, through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan and to Kashmir in northwestern India. It is home to some fifty languages of various genera including Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani, Tibeto- Burman, Turkic and the isolate Burushaski. It has long been of interest in areal typology, and there has been some discussion of phonological and lexical features shared between the languages, presumed to have evolved due to language contiguity and contact. The purpose of the present study is to research a grammatical feature, namely the plural marking of common nouns, in a selection of languages spoken in the Greater Hindukush area, and to discuss its salience as an areal or sub-areal feature. Several grammars have been consulted in the extraction and analysis of all relevant information on nominal plurality in the languages. The results indicate a correlation between stem modification as a means of marking nouns for plural, as well as optionality in the overt plural marking, and the contiguity of some languages. Conclusively, stem change as a method of expression displays some moderate degree of areality, while optionality of nominal plural marking in particular is suggested as a sub-areal feature of the area. Keywords Nominal plurality, areal typology, Hindukush, obligatoriness, optionality Nominal pluralitet i språk som talas i Greater Hindukush Noa Lange Sammanfattning Greater Hindukush är ett område som sträcker sig från nordvästra–centrala Afghanistan, genom Khyber Pakhtunkhwa och Gilgit–Baltistan i Pakistan, till Kashmir i nordvästra Indien.
    [Show full text]
  • Languages in Sicily Between the Classical Age and Late Antiquity: a Case of Punctuated Equilibrium? Marta Capano (Università Degli Studi Di Napoli L’Orientale)
    Languages in Sicily between the Classical Age and Late Antiquity: a case of punctuated equilibrium? Marta Capano (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale) Abstract Although late Roman Sicily is clearly represented by the ancient authors as a multilingual environment, the 20th–century scientific debate has proposed two divergent descriptions of the Sicilian linguistic landscape. While some scholars denied a deep Latinization under the Roman Empire, the increasing evidence of Latin inscriptions led others to hypothesize the decline of Greek. In the last decades, new approaches to bilingualism and linguistic contact, applied to antiquity, have demonstrated that many languages frequently coexist for a long time. Multilingualism has always characterized Sicily, but, before the Roman conquest, all minority languages had gradually disappeared, and the diatopic and dialectal variation of Greek converged towards a slightly Doric κοινά. As we can see from the epigraphic evidence, Roman Sicily was fully Greek–Latin bilingual until the end of the 5th century, and the two languages influenced each other. Latin and Greek epigraphs show similar onomastic material and phonological and morphological features, as well as a number of shared set phrases (mostly from Latin). These data are consistent with the first phase of Dixon’s theory of “punctuated equilibrium”, namely the equilibrium, since the two populations had a similar population, lifestyle and religious beliefs and, although Romans ruled over Sicily, Greek language and culture never lost their prestige. Even though the quantity of Greek evidence is not stable over the course of the 5th century, Sicily ultimately displays a situation of equilibrium until the end of the 5th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund: the Case of Ergativity
    The myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund: The case of ergativity. Kevin Tuite, Université de Montréal and ANU Research Centre for Linguistic Typology Département d’anthropologie Université de Montréal Case postale 6128, Succursale centre-ville Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada [email protected] 1. Introduction. The study of linguistic areas, or “Sprachbünde”, owes a great deal to the important research of Murray B. Emeneau on the geographical distribution of linguistic features among the languages of India and its neighboring countries. In the introduction he wrote to a collection of his essays, Emeneau observes, with deserved pride, that his work has “introduced the Indian linguistic area … as a worthy partner of the Balkans or the Caucasus” (Emeneau, 1980). I hope that the distinguished Sankritist and Dravidologist will not take it amiss if I use a quotation from his writings to introduce a paper in which I will argue that the Caucasus, whatever it might be in geolinguistic terms, is not a Sprachbund like the Balkans or, for that matter, the Indian subcontinent. 1.1. Trubetzkoy on Sprachbünde. The term Sprachbund was introduced to the linguistic world seventy years ago (although it had appeared in a tract on cultural themes by Trubetzkoy five years earlier (Toman, 1995: 204)), on the occasion of the 1st International Congress of Linguists in April 1928. At a session devoted to the “Établissement et délimination des termes techniques”, the phonologist Nikolai Trubetzkoy proposed that, in order avoid “Missverständnisse und Fehler” in the classification of languages, a distinction be made between Sprachfamilien and Sprachbünde: Gruppen, bestehend aus Sprachen, die eine große Ähnlichkeit in syntaktischer Hinsicht; eine Ähnlichkeit in den Grundsätzen des morphologischen Baues aufweisen; und eine große Anzahl gemeinsamer Kulturwörter bieten, manchmal auch äussere Ähnlichkeit im Bestande der Lautsystem, — dabei aber keine systematischen Lautentsprechungen, Myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund (K.
    [Show full text]
  • The Phonetics and Phonology of Retroflexes Published By
    The Phonetics and Phonology of Retroflexes Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Trans 10 fax: +31 30 253 6000 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/ Cover illustration by Silke Hamann ISBN 90-76864-39-X NUR 632 Copyright © 2003 Silke Hamann. All rights reserved. The Phonetics and Phonology of Retroflexes Fonetiek en fonologie van retroflexen (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr. W.H. Gispen, ingevolge het besluit van het College voor Promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 6 juni 2003 des middags te 4.15 uur door Silke Renate Hamann geboren op 25 februari 1971 te Lampertheim, Duitsland Promotoren: Prof. dr. T. A. Hall (Leipzig University) Prof. dr. Wim Zonneveld (Utrecht University) Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Markedness of retroflexes 3 1.2 Phonetic cues and phonological features 6 1.3 Outline of the dissertation 8 Part I: Phonetics of Retroflexes 2 Articulatory variation and common properties of retroflexes 11 2.1 Phonetic terminology 12 2.2 Parameters of articulatory variation 14 2.2.1 Speaker dependency 15 2.2.2 Vowel context 16 2.2.3 Speech rate 17 2.2.4 Manner dependency 19 2.2.4.1 Plosives 19 2.2.4.2 Nasals 20 2.2.4.3 Fricatives 21 2.2.4.4 Affricates 23 2.2.4.5 Laterals 24 2.2.4.6 Rhotics 25 2.2.4.7 Retroflex vowels 26 2.2.5 Language family 27 2.2.6 Iventory size 28 2.3 Common articulatory properties of retroflexion 32 2.3.1 Apicality 33 2.3.2 Posteriority
    [Show full text]
  • Lenition in Irish English
    In: Alison Henry, Martin Ball and Margaret MacAliskey (eds) Papers from the International Conference on Language in Ireland. Belfast Working Papers in Language and Linguistics, 13. Belfast: University of Ulster, 1996, 173-93. Lenition in Irish English Raymond Hickey Essen University Abstract. Consonant weakening (lenition) is a feature of both Irish and Irish English which reaches back far in the histories of both languages. Its manifestation and its system status is quite different in both cases so that any simple transfer theory will fail to account for lenition in Irish English. The present paper will be primarily concerned with describing the phonological conditions for consonant weakening in Irish English and with putting it in the broader perspective of similar phenomena in other varieties of English and finally with addressing the question of its genesis within Irish English, above all in the south of the country. Attention with be paid to its distribution in urban and rural varieties of the Republic and to its extent in colloquial and less- received registers of Irish English. Introduction There is general acceptance that the term ‘lenition’ refers to phonetic weakening, i.e. an increase in segmental sonority diachronically or occasionally as a morphological device as in Irish and other Celtic languages. Lenition is a phenomenon which is common in many languages which usually manifests itself as a shift from stop to fricative or a shift from voiceless to voiced with obstruents. Lenition normally consists of several steps and historically a language may exhibit a shift from stop to zero via a number of intermediary stages.
    [Show full text]
  • Himalayan Linguistics a Geolinguistic Study of Directional Prefixes in The
    Himalayan Linguistics A geolinguistic study of directional prefixes in the Qiangic language area Satoko Shirai Tokyo University of Foreign Studies ABSTRACT This study examines directional prefixes of the languages spoken in the Qiangic language area from a geolinguistic perspective. Among these languages, the northern languages tend to have more directional prefixes. This fact suggests the areal development of directional prefixes. I discuss the following eight directional prefixes: (i) “upward”, (ii) “downward”, (iii) “inward”, (iv) “outward”, (v) “upriver”, (vi) “downriver”, (vii) “eastward” and (viii) “westward”. These directional categories are based on nature such as landforms or space and are relatively common in Qiangic. First, I show the geographical distribution of the forms of prefixes for each directional category. Then, I make hypotheses on the historical development of directional prefixes using a geolinguistic method. I conclude that among these directional categories, (i)– (iv) are basic in the Qiangic language area. In other words, the other categories, (v)–(viii), developed later in each local area. The following are the oldest types of initial of each directional prefix: dental plosive for the “upriver” prefixes; dental nasal for the “downward” prefixes; voiceless velar plosive for the “inward” and “upriver” prefixes; voiced velar plosive for the “outward” and “downriver” prefixes; velar plosive for the “eastward” prefixes; and dental nasal for the “westward” prefixes. KEYWORDS Directional prefix, Qiangic, Geolinguistics, language area, GIS This is a contribution from Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 19(1): 365–392. ISSN 1544-7502 © 2020. All rights reserved. This Portable Document Format (PDF) file may not be altered in any way. Tables of contents, abstracts, and submission guidelines are available at escholarship.org/uc/himalayanlinguistics Himalayan Linguistics, Vol.
    [Show full text]