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Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia

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Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia by Paul Edmond Arsenault A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto © Copyright by Paul Edmond Arsenault 2012 Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia Paul Edmond Arsenault Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This dissertation explores the nature and extent of retroflex consonant harmony in South Asia. Using statistics calculated over lexical databases from a broad sample of languages, the study demonstrates that retroflex consonant harmony is an areal trait affecting most languages in the northern half of the South Asian subcontinent, including languages from at least three of the four major families in the region: Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Munda (but not Tibeto-Burman). Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages in the southern half of the subcontinent do not exhibit retroflex consonant harmony. In South Asia, retroflex consonant harmony is manifested primarily as a static co- occurrence restriction on coronal consonants in roots/words. Historical-comparative evidence reveals that this pattern is the result of retroflex assimilation that is non-local, regressive and conditioned by the similarity of interacting segments. These typological properties stand in ii contrast to those of other retroflex assimilation patterns, which are local, primarily progressive, and not conditioned by similarity. This is argued to support the hypothesis that local feature spreading and long-distance feature agreement constitute two independent mechanisms of assimilation, each with its own set of typological properties, and that retroflex consonant harmony is the product of agreement, not spreading. Building on this hypothesis, the study offers a formal account of retroflex consonant harmony within the Agreement by Correspondence (ABC) model of Rose & Walker (2004) and Hansson (2001; 2010). Two Indo-Aryan languages, Kalasha and Indus Kohistani, figure prominently throughout the dissertation. These languages exhibit similarity effects that have not been clearly observed in other retroflex consonant harmony systems; retroflexion is contrastive in both non- sibilant (i.e., plosive) and sibilant obstruents (i.e., affricates and fricatives), but harmony applies only within each manner class, not between them. At the same time, harmony is not sensitive to laryngeal features. Theoretical implications of these and other similarity effects are discussed. iii Acknowledgments Many people have assisted me in one way or another throughout the process of researching and writing this dissertation. The members of my thesis committee deserve special mention. Keren Rice is everything one could want in a supervisor. She was always available, always a good listener, always a source of excellent advice (linguistic and otherwise) and always had my best interest at heart. It has been a joy and privilege to study under her guidance. Alexei Kochetov has contributed more than anyone else to the substance of the dissertation. It was he that first put me onto the topic of consonant harmony. Several of the case studies presented in this dissertation were conducted in collaboration with him, including Kalasha (§3.3.2), Panjabi (§3.2.3) and Burushaski (§3.3.5). Elan Dresher always had insightful and constructive feedback. There is no doubt that the dissertation is stronger for his input. I am also very grateful to Gunnar Hansson (University of British Columbia), Yoonjung Kang (University of Toronto Scarborough) and Peter Avery (York University) for agreeing to read what is, admittedly, a long dissertation, and for serving on the examination committee. Their questions and comments in the final oral examination were both stimulating and constructive and will no doubt set the course for my research in years to come. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of this research project was the opportunity it afforded for collaboration with linguists from around the globe. Several people graciously contributed electronic lexical databases from their own fieldwork on lesser-known and under- documented languages of South Asia. The main contributors, and the languages for which they contributed data, are as follows (in no particular order): Ron Trail and Greg Cooper (Kalasha); Joan Baart (Kalami); Henrik Liljegren (Palula); the late Carla Radloff (Shina); Irena van Riezen iv (Kumauni); Binzy Joseph George and Christina Joseph (Korwa); Laiju Ek (Bagheli). Others shared research in the form of papers or took the time to discuss their area of specialization with me. In addition to some of the names just mentioned, these include (again, in no particular order): Jan Heegård and Ida Mørch (Kalasha); Pierpaolo Di Carlo (Kalasha); Claus Peter Zoller (Indus Kohistani); Rajesh Khatiwada (Nepali); Christopher Wilde (Humla Bhotia); Kevin Kopp (Dolpo Tibetan); and Stella Sandahl (Sanskrit). Parts of this research project were presented at various conference venues, where I received valuable feedback from fellow participants. My thanks to the participants at the 39th meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 39) at Cornell University in 2008; the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in San Francisco in 2009; the MOT Phonology Workshop at the University of Toronto in 2009 and 2012; the CRC-Sponsored Phonetics/Phonology Workshop at the University of Toronto in 2010 and 2011; and the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2012. In particular, I benefited greatly from discussions, mostly concerning theoretical approaches to consonant harmony, with Rachel Walker, Sara Mackenzie, Daniel Currie Hall and Peter Jurgec, among others. Thanks to my immediate and extended family who supported me in so many practical ways. Special thanks to John Bateman for many early morning drives to the train station and to Victor Ettel and Sue Perry-Ettel for giving me a place to rest my head in Toronto. Last, but not least, I thank my wife, Kyla, and our children, TJ and Hannah, for putting up with my long absences from home and with my absent mindedness when I was at home. More than anyone or anything else, they kept me grounded when the going got tough by reminding me of all that I love in the world outside of linguistics. v Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................. XI LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................................. XIII LIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... XV A NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS ........................................................................................ XVII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 LANGUAGES OF SOUTH ASIA ................................................................................................................. 3 1.1.1 DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES ........................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1.2 INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES ........................................................................................................................................ 9 1.1.3 MUNDA LANGUAGES ............................................................................................................................................... 12 1.1.4 TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGES ............................................................................................................................. 13 1.2 RETROFLEXION AND OTHER CORONAL ARTICULATIONS ........................................................ 14 1.2.1 ARTICULATORY PROPERTIES OF RETROFLEXION .............................................................................................. 16 1.2.2 CORONAL PLACES OF ARTICULATION .................................................................................................................. 20 1.2.3 ACOUSTIC AND PERCEPTUAL PROPERTIES OF RETROFLEXION ....................................................................... 23 1.3 CONSONANT HARMONY ....................................................................................................................... 27 1.3.1 DEFINITION OF CONSONANT HARMONY .............................................................................................................. 28 1.3.2 PARAMETERS OF ASSIMILATION ........................................................................................................................... 33 1.3.3 TYPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF CONSONANT HARMONY SYSTEMS .................................................................. 36 1.3.3.1 Similarity of interacting segments ..........................................................................................................
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