DOCSLIB.ORG

Linguistic Nature of Prenasalization

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read 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. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections w ith a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 77-19,547 FEINSTEIN, Mark H., 1948- THE LINGUISTIC NATURE OF PRENASALIZATION. The City University of New York, Ph.D., 1977 Language, linguistics Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THE LINGUISTIC NATURE OF PRENASALIZATION by Mark H. Feinstein A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 1977 This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [signature] Date Chairman of Examining Comir [signature] Date Executive Officer Mark Liberman Alan Stevens Robert Vago Supervisory Committee The City University of New York ABSTRACT The linguistic nature of the class of sounds which are traditionally called "prenasalized consonants" (PNCs) has never been adequately explored. The purpose of this work is to provide a descriptively adequate framework in which to characterize PNCs, and to express their behavior most generally. This is done within the theory of generative phonology (essentially the Standard Theory of Chomsky and Halle 1968), incorporating a theory of markedness and syl­ labification. It is argued that PNCs cannot be described adequately as monosegmental entities in linguistic theory. Rather, PNCs in all languages are claimed to be sequences of homorganic nasal and oral consonant in underlying phon­ ological representations, which surface in systematic phonetic representation as (tautosyllabic) syllable onsets. For a language to exhibit such onsets, it must contain a costly (language-specific) syllabification rule which con­ verts the unmarked syllabified string XN$CY (whose syllab­ ification is given by universal convention) into the marked structure X$NCY, where $ represents the syllable boundary. There is no linguistic level, nor any stage in phonological derivations, where PNCs must be represented monosegmentally, nor at which the characteristically brief nasal onset period must be referred to as an internal com­ ponent of an oral consonant. Such properties as are nec­ essary to fully characterize PNCs as physical-phonetic events are assigned to systematic phonetic $NC sequences by mechanisms within a phonetic performance theory. One of the very few languages where PNCs appear to contrast directly with ordinary heterosyllabic clusters of homorganic nasal and oral consonants is Sinhalese, an Indoeuropean language of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). An analysis of this language, and a similar case in the West African language Fula, are presented, and strong evidence is pro­ vided for the adequacy of a sequential analysis of pre­ nasalization, in spite of the apparent contrast. The analysis of Sinhalese also reveals a rich interaction be­ tween the behavior of PNCs and the general syllable struc­ ture of the language. This relationship can be revealingly expressed only if the notion of the syllable is formally available in phonological theory. Adviser: Prof. Charles Cairns ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My interest in prenasalization has grown primarily out of a long-term interest in the phonological and mor­ phological complexities of Sinhalese. I owe this interest to Chuck Cairns, with whom I first worked on the language, and who has been a model of intellectual rigor. None of my work in Sinhalese could have been accomplished with­ out the tireless support of Wimal De Silva, a native of Sri Lanka, who worked for several years as my informant. Virtually all of the Sinhalese data here was elicited from Mr. De Silva, who speaks the dialect of Galle in southwest­ ern Sri Lanka. I am also indebted to Bob Vago and Alan Stevens of Queens College and the Graduate Faculty in- Linguistics at CUNY, whose contributions to the content and style of this dissertation were invaluable. Mark Liberman's critical examination of the thesis as an outside reader was also invaluable; his insightful remarks contributed greatly to the coherence of this work. I would also like to thank Steve Strauss, a colleague and fellow student whose interest and insight were especially stimulating; and also Bob Herbert, whose thinking about prenasalization has somewhat paralleled my own, and whose knowledge of African linguistics and work on Luganda prenasalization were particularly helpful. Finally I want to express my gratitude to Terry Langendoen, whose broad linguistic in­ terests have helped me keep my own concerns in perspective; iv. to Bob Fiengo, whose intellectual excitement is infectious; to R.M.R. Hall, who saw me through a stimulating undergrad­ uate education in linguistics; to Peter Salus, who started it all; and to my wife Carol, who kept me sane and happy during the long completion of this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dissertation Abstract..................................... ii Acknowledgments...........................................iii CHAPTER I: THE SEQUENTIAL ANALYSIS OF PRENASALIZATION 1 1.0. General Introduction.................................. 1 1.1. A Statement of the Hypothesis............. 5 1.2. Syllabification....................................... 9 1.2.1. Justification for the Syllable ...............10 1.2.2. Approaches to Syllabification Mechanisms......... 13 1.2.2.1. The Syllable Markedness Approach................13 1.2.2.2. The Maximal Cluster Approach.................... 16 1.2.2.3- The Universal Syllabification Convention and other Matters............................... 19 1.2.2.4. Supporting Evidence..............................22 1.3- Summary.............................................. 24 1.4. General Outline of the Dissertation.................25 CHAPTER II: UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES OF PNCs.................. 26 2.1. The Physical Nature of Prenasalization..............26 2.1.1. Duration and Tautosyllabicity..................... 26 2.1.2. Homorganicity................................. .....28 2.1.3* Nasalization....................................... 29 2.2. Types of PNCs........................................ 31 2.2.1. Voiced Stop PNCs................................... 31 2.2.2. Voiceless Stop PNCs................................32 2.2.3* Voiced and Voiceless Stop PNCs in Phonological Alternations......................33 2.2.4. Fricative PNCs..................................... 34 2.2.5. Affricate PNCs..................................... 35 2.2.6. On "Sonorant PNCs"................................. 35 2.3* A Classification of Languages with PNCs............ 38 2.3*1* Type 1 ............................................. 39 2.3*2. Type II ............................................ 40 2.3*3* Type III........................................... 42 2.3*4. Type IV ............................................ 44 2.3*5* Further Remarks and Summary....................... 44 2.4. Universal Implicational Laws and Markedness of PNCs..............................................46 2.4.1. General
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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]
  • UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics
    UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/00h9g9gg Author Shosted, Ryan K Publication Date 2006 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives by Ryan Keith Shosted B.A. (Brigham Young University) 2000 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2003 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: John J. Ohala, Chair Keith Johnson Milton M. Azevedo Fall 2006 The dissertation of Ryan Keith Shosted is approved: Chair Date Date Date University of California, Berkeley Fall 2006 The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives Copyright 2006 by Ryan Keith Shosted 1 Abstract The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives by Ryan Keith Shosted Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley John J. Ohala, Chair Understanding the relationship of aerodynamic laws to the unique geometry of the hu- man vocal tract allows us to make phonological and typological predictions about speech sounds typified by particular aerodynamic regimes. For example, some have argued that the realization of nasalized fricatives is improbable because fricatives and nasals have an- tagonistic aerodynamic specifications. Fricatives require high pressure behind the suprala- ryngeal constriction as a precondition for high particle velocity. Nasalization, on the other hand, vents back pressure by allowing air to escape through the velopharyngeal orifice. This implies that an open velopharyngeal port will reduce oral particle velocity, thereby potentially extinguishing frication. By using a mechanical model of the vocal tract and spoken fricatives that have undergone coarticulatory nasalization, it is shown that nasal- ization must alter the spectral characteristics of fricatives, e.g.
    [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]
  • Phonetic Explanations for Sound Patterns: Implications for Grammars
    PHONETIC EXPLANATIONS FOR SOUND PATTERNS: IMPLICATIONS FOR GRAMMARS OF COMPETENCE. John J. Ohala University of California, Berkeley. ABSTRACT Phonological grammars try to represent speakers’ knowledge so that the ‘natural’ behavior of speech sounds becomes self-evident. Phonetic models have the same goals but have no psychological pretensions. Phonetic models succeed in explaining the natural behavior of speech, whereas phonological representations largely fail. The ‘phonetic naturalness’ requirement in phonological grammars should be re-examined and probably abandoned. INTRODUCTION The quest to find a representation of speech sounds that makes their behavior self- evident goes back at least 3 centuries (Amman 1694; Jespersen 1889; Key 1855) but has been most intense in the past 3 decades. Two approaches to “natural” representation have been developed in parallel, one, the “mainstream” phonological one which employs discrete linguistic primitives and at the same time purports to represent the knowledge of the native speaker (Chomsky & Halle 1968 [SPE]; Clements 1985; Goldsmith 1979; McCarthy 1988) and another, phonetic models which are expressed with continuous physical primitives (Fant 1960; Fujimura 1962; Ohala 1976; Scully 1990; Stevens 1971; Westbury & Keating 1985) but which do not pretend to reflect psychological structure. 2 In this paper I review certain well-known cases of sound patterns which are better explained by phonetic rather than mainstream phonological representations and then discuss the relevance of this for phonological (mental) grammars. CONSTRAINS ON VOICING There is a well known aerodynamic constraint on voicing in obstruents. Some languages, like Korean and Mandarin have only voiceless stop phonemes; in languages like English that possess both voiced and voiceless stops, the voiceless [R], [V], [M] tend to occur more often in connected speech than the voiced [D], [F], [I].
    [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]
  • 78. 78. Nasal Harmony Nasal Harmony
    Bibliographic Details The Blackwell Companion to Phonology Edited by: Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume and Keren Rice eISBN: 9781405184236 Print publication date: 2011 78. Nasal Harmony RACHEL WWALKER Subject Theoretical Linguistics » Phonology DOI: 10.1111/b.9781405184236.2011.00080.x Sections 1 Nasal vowel–consonant harmony with opaque segments 2 Nasal vowel–consonant harmony with transparent segments 3 Nasal consonant harmony 4 Directionality 5 Conclusion ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Notes REFERENCES Nasal harmony refers to phonological patterns where nasalization is transmitted in long-distance fashion. The long-distance nature of nasal harmony can be met by the transmission of nasalization either to a series of segments or to a non-adjacent segment. Nasal harmony usually occurs within words or a smaller domain, either morphologically or prosodically defined. This chapter introduces the chief characteristics of nasal harmony patterns with exemplification, and highlights related theoretical themes. It focuses primarily on the different roles that segments can play in nasal harmony, and the typological properties to which they give rise. The following terminological conventions will be assumed. A trigger is a segment that initiates nasal harmony. A target is a segment that undergoes harmony. An opaque segment or blocker halts nasal harmony. A transparent segment is one that does not display nasalization within a span of nasal harmony, but does not halt harmony from transmitting beyond it. Three broad categories of nasal harmony are considered in this chapter. They are (i) nasal vowel–consonant harmony with opaque segments, (ii) nasal vowel– consonant harmony with transparent segments, and (iii) nasal consonant harmony. Each of these groups of systems show characteristic hallmarks.
    [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]
  • UC Berkeley Phonlab Annual Report
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report Title Turbulence & Phonology Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4kp306rx Journal UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report, 4(4) ISSN 2768-5047 Authors Ohala, John J Solé, Maria-Josep Publication Date 2008 DOI 10.5070/P74kp306rx eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2008) Turbulence & Phonology John J. Ohala* & Maria-Josep Solé # *Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley [email protected] #Department of English, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain [email protected] In this paper we aim to provide an account of some of the phonological patterns involving turbulent sounds, summarizing material we have published previously and results from other investigators. In addition, we explore the ways in which sounds pattern, combine, and evolve in language and how these patterns can be derived from a few physical and perceptual principles which are independent from language itself (Lindblom 1984, 1990a) and which can be empirically verified (Ohala and Jaeger 1986). This approach should be contrasted with that of mainstream phonological theory (i.e., phonological theory within generative linguistics) which primarily considers sound structure as motivated by ‘formal’ principles or constraints that are specific to language, rather than relevant to other physical or cognitive domains. For this reason, the title of this paper is meant to be ambiguous. The primary sense of it refers to sound patterns in languages involving sounds with turbulence, e.g., fricatives and stops bursts, but a secondary meaning is the metaphorical turbulence in the practice of phonology over the past several decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *A- Prefix: Glottal and Nasal Complications 31
    Journal of Asian and African Studies, No.96, 2018 Article Rethinking the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *a- prefix:＊ Glottal and Nasal Complications MATISOFF, James A. There has always been something rather anomalous about the PTB prefix conventionally reconstructed as *a-. While all the other prefixes set up for the proto-language (*s-, *m-, *b-, *d-, *g-, *r-) are consonantal, *a- looks as if it consisted of a simple vowel. My contention is that the phonetics and morphophonemics of this prefix were considerably more complicated than that: · The prefix should be reconstructed with a glottal stop preceding the vowel (i.e. *ʔa-), bringing it in line with the other consonantal prefixes. · Both stressed and unstressed variants should be recognized (i.e. *ʔa- vs. *ʔə-). · A nasal increment to the prefix seems to have arisen at an early date, via the mechanism of rhinoglottophilia (see Section IV), leading to forms like *ʔaɴ (stressed) and *ʔə̃- (unstressed). · Some languages, notably Mikir (Karbi), Lotha, and Akha, developed a palatalized as well as a non-palatalized variant of the nasalized prefix (i.e. *ʔaɴ- ~ *yaɴ-). · Certain languages (Tibetan, Proto-Lolo-Burmese) underwent loss (apheresis) of the vowel of the nasalized prefix, yielding prenasalized monosyllabic forms. · Lahu (and perhaps other languages) have somehow developed a stop-finalled variant in addition to the nasal-finalled one (i.e., *ʔaŋ > *ʔak-). See Section VII. The prefix occurs in dozens of languages with a wide variety of interrelated semantic functions, most of them apparently having to do with the notion of inalienable possession: kinship terms, body-parts, adjectives, genitives, 3rd person pronouns.
    [Show full text]
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands
    Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands First compiled by Nancy Sack and Gwen Sinclair Updated by Nancy Sack Current to January 2020 Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Pacific Islands Background An inquiry from a librarian in Micronesia about how to identify subject headings for the Pacific islands highlighted the need for a list of authorized Library of Congress subject headings that are uniquely relevant to the Pacific islands or that are important to the social, economic, or cultural life of the islands. We reasoned that compiling all of the existing subject headings would reveal the extent to which additional subjects may need to be established or updated and we wish to encourage librarians in the Pacific area to contribute new and changed subject headings through the Hawai‘i/Pacific subject headings funnel, coordinated at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.. We captured headings developed for the Pacific, including those for ethnic groups, World War II battles, languages, literatures, place names, traditional religions, etc. Headings for subjects important to the politics, economy, social life, and culture of the Pacific region, such as agricultural products and cultural sites, were also included. Scope Topics related to Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai‘i would predominate in our compilation had they been included. Accordingly, we focused on the Pacific islands in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (excluding Hawai‘i and New Zealand). Island groups in other parts of the Pacific were also excluded. References to broader or related terms having no connection with the Pacific were not included. Overview This compilation is modeled on similar publications such as Music Subject Headings: Compiled from Library of Congress Subject Headings and Library of Congress Subject Headings in Jewish Studies.
    [Show full text]