Initial Consonant Mutation and Information Flow in Mende
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Consonant Gradation in Estonian and Sámi: Two-Level Solution TROND TROSTERUD and HELI UIBO
14 Consonant Gradation in Estonian and Sámi: Two-Level Solution TROND TROSTERUD AND HELI UIBO 14.1 Introduction Koskenniemi’s two-level morphology was the first practical general model in the history of computational linguistics for the analysis of morphologi- cally complex languages. In this article we will reconsider one of the key innovations in Koskenniemi (1983), namely the treatment of consonant gra- dation in finite state transducers. We will look not at Finnish, but at two lan- guages with a more extensive consonant gradation system, namely Estonian and Sámi. The goal of the paper is to demonstrate two different ways of mod- eling consonant gradation in a finite state morphological system - lexical and morphophonological. We will also compare the resulting systems by their computational complexity and human-readability. Consonant gradation is rare among the languages of the world, but stem al- ternation in itself is not, and the treatment of consonant gradation can readily be transferred to other stem alternation phenomena. Koskenniemi’s original idea was to see stem alternation as an agglutinative phenomenon. Consider the example (14.1), showing a two-level representation of stem alternation. ehT e$:ehe (14.1) Here the $ sign is a quasi-suffix, introduced to trigger consonant grada- tion in the stem. Two-level rules decide the correspondence of T to surface phonemes t or 0 (empty symbol), based on the context, specifically, according to the presence or absence of the symbol $ in the right context. Another type of rules for handling stem alternations that can be compiled Inquiries into Words, Constraints and Contexts. -
Consonant Gradation in Finnish Dialects
Consonant Gradation in Finnish Dialects Consonant gradation is a lenition process common to most of the Finnic languages. In Finnish it is now only partly productive phonologically in that it rarely affects recent loans and neologisms. However, it is still pervasive in the lexicon and is very much a part of Finnish phonology. Gradation in Finnish affects geminate and singleton voiceless stops preceding a short vowel in a closed syllable. The geminates shorten (quantitative gradation) and the singletons undergo various lenition processes (qualitative gradation), depending on the environment, the dialect, and a range of sociolinguistic factors (see 1). However, within the Finnish dialects, there is much variation within qualitative gradation, especially for the coronal (see 2). The goal of this paper is to provide an account of qualitative gradation that takes into consideration the kind of variation that exists between dialects as shown in Kettunen’s (1940) dialect atlas. There are five main patterns in the data, as shown in table 1. In all cases /p/ lenites to [ʋ]. The /t/ may lenite, take on place features from an adjacent vowel, or delete while /k/ may either assimilate to place features of an adjacent vowel or delete. That deletion is disfavoured for either segment suggests that there is a strong requirement to retain the consonant. Finally, the lenition of /t/ simply needs to result in a non-nasal coronal if there is not assimilation to a vowel. In this paper I provide an account of the conditions for assimilation to vowels. Assimilation is most likely to occur when the sequence of vowels that would result from deletion would create hiatus. -
Phonemic Vs. Derived Glides
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/240419751 Phonemic vs. derived glides ARTICLE in LINGUA · DECEMBER 2008 Impact Factor: 0.71 · DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2007.10.003 CITATIONS READS 14 32 1 AUTHOR: Susannah V Levi New York University 24 PUBLICATIONS 172 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: Susannah V Levi Retrieved on: 09 October 2015 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Lingua 118 (2008) 1956–1978 www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua Phonemic vs. derived glides Susannah V. Levi * Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, New York University, 665 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10003, United States Received 2 February 2007; received in revised form 30 June 2007; accepted 2 October 2007 Available online 27 September 2008 Abstract Previous accounts of glides have argued that all glides are derived from vowels. In this paper, we examine data from Karuk, Sundanese, and Pulaar which reveal the existence of two types of phonologically distinct glides both cross-linguistically and within a single language. ‘‘Phonemic’’ glides are distinct from underlying vowels and pattern with other sonorant consonants, while ‘‘derived’’ glides are non-syllabic, positional variants of underlying vowels and exhibit vowel-like behavior. It is argued that the phonological difference between these two types of glides lies in their different underlying featural representations. Derived glides are positional variants of vowels and therefore featurally identical. In contrast, phonemic glides are featurally distinct from underlying vowels and therefore pattern differently. Though a phono- logical distinction between these two types of glides is evident in these three languages, a reliable phonetic distinction does not appear to exist. -
Mathematics in African History and Cultures
Paulus Gerdes & Ahmed Djebbar MATHEMATICS IN AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURES: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY African Mathematical Union Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA) Mathematics in African History and Cultures Second edition, 2007 First edition: African Mathematical Union, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004 ISBN: 978-1-4303-1537-7 Published by Lulu. Copyright © 2007 by Paulus Gerdes & Ahmed Djebbar Authors Paulus Gerdes Research Centre for Mathematics, Culture and Education, C.P. 915, Maputo, Mozambique E-mail: [email protected] Ahmed Djebbar Département de mathématiques, Bt. M 2, Université de Lille 1, 59655 Villeneuve D’Asq Cedex, France E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Cover design inspired by a pattern on a mat woven in the 19th century by a Yombe woman from the Lower Congo area (Cf. GER-04b, p. 96). 2 Table of contents page Preface by the President of the African 7 Mathematical Union (Prof. Jan Persens) Introduction 9 Introduction to the new edition 14 Bibliography A 15 B 43 C 65 D 77 E 105 F 115 G 121 H 162 I 173 J 179 K 182 L 194 M 207 N 223 O 228 P 234 R 241 S 252 T 274 U 281 V 283 3 Mathematics in African History and Cultures page W 290 Y 296 Z 298 Appendices 1 On mathematicians of African descent / 307 Diaspora 2 Publications by Africans on the History of 313 Mathematics outside Africa (including reviews of these publications) 3 On Time-reckoning and Astronomy in 317 African History and Cultures 4 String figures in Africa 338 5 Examples of other Mathematical Books and 343 -
Mende Natural History Vocabulary
i MENDE NATURAL HISTORY VOCABULARY BV FREDERICK AVILLIA]\I HUGH IMIGEOU Author of "The Mknkk Laxgcage," 190S "The Languages of West Africa," Vol. I. I9il ; Vol. II. 1013 LONDON KEGAN PAUL. TRENCH, TRUHNER & CO. L^i> BROADW.-\Y HOUSE, CARTER LANE. E.G. 1913 : BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE LANGUAGES OF WEST AFRICA A Lino;uistic Survey of about Three Hundred Languages or Dialects. Demy 8vo, 2 Vols., 12.S. {\d. net each. THE MENDE LANGUAGE, containing useful Phrases, Elementarj^ Grammar, Short Vocabularies, and Stories for Reading. Crown <Svo. 7s. (jd. net. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Limited. The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved IMIEFACE This vocabulary, wliicli was compiled at Sekoiidi on the Gold Coast, consists of a list of the names of as many animals, plants, itc, as the author has been able to observe personally or to obtain a description of. It does not profess to be a scientific Natural History (luide either to the Mende country or to the locality where it was compiled. It may, however, be found useful to those who, without any zoological or botanical knowledge, wish to know something of the Bush, and it can of course be used in any pait of West Africa if the assistance of an intelligent Mende can be obtained. The vocabulary is divided into sections for convenience of reference, and alphabetical order has been set aside when a grouping seemed likely to be more useful. Most of the objects named have come under the author's personal ob- servation ; but amongst the exceptions, which are from description only, must be included, besides nearly all the fish and the varieties of rice, many if not most of the larger animals. -
Morphological Sources of Phonological Length
Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha B.A. (Brown University) 1993 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2004 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: Professor Sharon Inkelas (chair) Professor Larry Hyman Professor Keith Johnson Professor Johanna Nichols Spring 2008 Abstract Morphological Sources of Phonological Length by Anne Pycha Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair This study presents and defends Resizing Theory, whose claim is that the overall size of a morpheme can serve as a basic unit of analysis for phonological alternations. Morphemes can increase their size by any number of strategies -- epenthesizing new segments, for example, or devoicing an existing segment (and thereby increasing its phonetic duration) -- but it is the fact of an increase, and not the particular strategy used to implement it, which is linguistically significant. Resizing Theory has some overlap with theories of fortition and lenition, but differs in that it uses the independently- verifiable parameter of size in place of an ad-hoc concept of “strength” and thereby encompasses a much greater range of phonological alternations. The theory makes three major predictions, each of which is supported with cross-linguistic evidence. First, seemingly disparate phonological alternations can achieve identical morphological effects, but only if they trigger the same direction of change in a morpheme’s size. Second, morpheme interactions can take complete control over phonological outputs, determining surface outputs when traditional features and segments fail to do so. -
The Sherbro Leopard Murders in Sierra Leone Paul Richards
Africa 91 (2) 2021: 226–48 doi:10.1017/S0001972021000048 Public authority and its demons: the Sherbro leopard murders in Sierra Leone Paul Richards The argument Mary Douglas and other practitioners of Africanist social and cultural anthropol- ogy in its high modernist mid-twentieth-century form (6 and Richards 2017) were clear that beliefs concerning witches and other occult entities formed an important part of political and juridical processes in much of Africa during the late colonial period in which they worked. Equally, Douglas assumed that much would have been swept away by postcolonial social change (Douglas 1963: 269). Thus, she was shocked on a return visit to the Lele in Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, in the mid-1980s, after an absence of over three decades, to encounter a witch-finding crusade mounted against local public authorities by two Catholic priests. She inferred from this disturbing experience that persistence of beliefs in demonic forces must be connected to the economic immiseration of postcolonial Congo (Douglas 1999a). Meanwhile, a younger generation of anthropologists was reinvigorating the study of African witchcraft and discovering that it had a strong presence in postcolonial urban areas (Comaroff and Comaroff 1993; Geschiere 1995). Like Douglas, they also pointed to the neglected political and economic salience of the demonic. Since then, the study of populism has become a topic of major concern among political scientists (Laclau 2005; Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017), and we are somewhat better prepared to under- stand ways in which political actors engage with occult aspects of the popular imagination. Analytically, however, better accounts are needed concerning how such notions are generated, distributed and manipulated (Grijspaarde et al. -
Kalevala Verses
;-~~'<iF%2iFi Ie .' I YYdC e. "', -J.. L~ fA=)J 1 "'r METRICS AND MORPHOPHONEMICS IN THE KALE~ALA If PAUL KIPARSKY MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 'Il' I." The prosody of Finnish epic folk poetry has been described, with clarity and in detail, in Sadeniemi's Metrik des Kalevala Verses. 1 This material has important implications for a general theory of prosody which have not yet been drawn. To point out some of these is one of the purposes of the following remarks. Another is to demonstrate that what seem to be systematic class es of exceptions to the general metrical rules established by Sadeniemi actually turn out to be fully regular as soon as jus tice is done to the phonological structure of the Finnish lan guage. Of the three sections of this paper, the first simply summarizes, and in part slightly reformulates, the essential fea r t ':>S tures of the Kalevala line as stated by Sadeniemi. Section two ,'. es is a discussion of alliteration, in which a new solution is g~ven f to the paradox of vowel (or zero) alliteration. Section three ·.'()k analyzes the specific form of the phonological representations \.- to which the metrical constraints must apply. Towards the end of the paper I indulge in some speculation about the role of sound change and morphophonemics, and their interaction, in the development of metrical systems. 1. The Metrical Structure of the Line The Kalevala is composed of octosyllabic lines in which the distribution of quantity and stress is subject to certain re strictions. For example, while the following three lines are correctly formed Luvan antoi suuri Luoja 'The great Creator gave per mission' Sel~ssa meren sinisen 'On the expanse of the blue sea' Oi Ukko ylijumala '0 Ukko, supreme god' these two, likewise octosyllabic, violate the metrical rules: Rakas oli oma emo 'Dear was (my) own mother' Vanhalla Vainamoisella 'Old V~inamoinen (adessive)' To formulate the constraints on quantity and stress it is neces sary to assume an underlying trochaic meter for all lines of the 1. -
Some Reflections on Vowel Harmony. Working Papers on Conditions
DOCURENT RESUME ED 102 821 FL 006 214 AUTHOR Ultan, Russell TITLE Some Reflections on Vowel Harmony. Working Papers on Language Universals, No.. 12. INSTITUTION Stanford Univ., Calif. Committee on Linguistics. PUB DATE Nov 73 NOTE 32p. EDRS PRICE HF-S0.76 HC -$1.95 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *Articulation (Speech); Contrastive Linguistics; *Linguistic Theory; Phonetics; *Phonology; *Vowels ABSTRACT Conditions favoring the development of the three major types of vowel-harmony systems: horizontal, palatal, andlabial are examined in terns of correlations between sonority, contiguity, or phonetic distance on the one hand and relative assimilability of vowels on the other. Broadly speaking, the lesssonorous, the more contiguous, and the closer the vowel is in terms of articulatory features, the more likely it is to assimilate to the determining vowel. Investigation of the relative markedness of harmonic grades shows that the feature values: tense, low, front, and unrounded,are unmarked vis-a-vis their respective marked counterparts: lax, high, back, and rounded, leading to the conclusion that marked feature values tend to assimilate to the corresponding unmarkedvalues. Among the three primary dimensions, labiality is most marked, then palatality, followed by the least marked, horizontality. Neutral vowels are also briefly discussed. (Author) ars s 1-4 Working Papers on Language Universals hl No. 12, November 1973 CO pp. 37-67 C.) Cal La ttil"161 SOME REFLECTIONS ON VOWEL HARMONY Russell Ultan Language Universals Project ABSTRACT Conditions favoring the development of the three major types of vowel-harmony systems: horizontal, palatal and labial are examined in terms of correlations between sonority, contiguity, or phonetic dis- tance on the one hand and relative assimilability of vowels on the other. -
Person Marking in South-West Mande Languages: a Tentative Reconstruction1
Mandenkan No. 46, 2010, pp. 3-48 Person Marking in South-West Mande Languages: 1 a Tentative Reconstruction Kirill Babaev Institute of Linguistics for the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow The article presents a brief comparative analysis of systems of person marking in the six languages of the South-Western group of the Mande family and a tentative reconstruction of the proto- language person markers. The paper includes data from the newly- discovered Zialo language recorded in 2010 by the Russian linguistic expedition to West Africa. Keywords: personal pronouns, person marking, comparative analysis, reconstruction, Mande languages, Niger-Congo languages 0. Introduction The general idea of the present paper is to conduct an analysis of the systems of person marking in the South-Western Mande (further referred to as SWM) languages and to deliver a tentative reconstruction of the original Proto-SWM system. So far, no attempt of such a reconstruction has been published. The area populated by speakers of SWM languages lies in the savanna and rainforest zones of West Africa. The group encompasses the following languages: 1. Bandi (French bandi) is spoken by about 100 thousand people (2001) in Lofa county in the northern part of Liberia. Bandi is rather homogeneous: the only variety with significant phonological peculiarities is the dialect of Yawiazu. 2. Kpelle (or Kpese, French guerzé) is in use by nearly 800 thousand speakers equally distributed between Guinea (N’Zérékoré province) and northern Liberia. There are about a dozen of dialects of Kpelle that vary greatly: the common distinction is drawn between the Guinean and Liberian dialect clusters. -
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Paths Into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean Edited by Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério
STUDI MICENEI ED EGEO-ANATOLICI NUOVA SERIE SUPPLEMENTO 1 Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean edited by Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério Edizioni Quasar STUDI MICENEI ED EGEO-ANATOLICI NUOVA SERIE SUPPLEMENTO 1 è una pubblicazione del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma ISBN 978-88-7140-898-9 Direttore / Editor-in-chief Anna D’Agata (CNR, Roma) Undertaken with the assistance of Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP), Philadelphia * Printed with the support of Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Düsseldorf * The editors are grateful to Judith Weingarten for revising the English of the original manuscript Immagine di copertina / Cover illustration Writing Travels the Sea, drawing by Miguel Valério based on signs from the Cretan Hieroglyphic, Byblos and Anatolian Hieroglyphic scripts Stampa e distribuzione / Printing and distribution Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon s.r.l. Via Ajaccio 41-43 – 00198 Roma tel. +39 0685358444, fax +39 0685833591 email: [email protected] www.edizioniquasar.it © 2018 CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Autorizzazione Tribunale di Roma nr. 288/2014 del 31.12.2014 SOMMARIO Anna Lucia D’Agata Preface 7 Silvia Ferrara, Miguel Valério Introduction 9 Image-Bound Scripts at the Inception of Writing 1. Roeland P.-J.E. Decorte The Origins of Bronze Age Aegean Writing: Linear A, Cretan Hieroglyphic and a New Proposed Pathway of Script Formation 13 2. Mark Weeden Hieroglyphic Writing on Old Hittite Seals and Sealings? Towards a Material Basis for Further Research 51 Adaptations: Between Pictorialism and Schematism 3. Juan Pablo Vita, José Ángel Zamora The Byblos Script 75 4. Miguel Valério Cypro-Minoan: An Aegean-derived Syllabary on Cyprus (and Elsewhere) 103 5.