Appendixl the Kashubian Syllable: Experimental Evidence
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Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial exhacts kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Supervisor: Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the word-level phonology of the North- West Slavic language Kashubian spoken in East Pomerania (northern Poland) placing the investigation within the theoretical context of Optimality Theorv. The primary goal of the thesis is thus to explore and describe the phonology of this language which has largely escaped the attention of generative phonology, it also aims to provide insight into the possibilities presented and the challenges faced by Optimality Theory in describing the phonological system of this language. Chapter One gives a general presentation of Kashubian. A definition of Kashubian in terms of its place within the Slavic language family is iollowed first by a brief history of research into this language, focussing mainly on those linguists who have made the most significant contributions, and then by an overview of the phonology and morphology of Kashubian. This chapter also presents the principles and methodology employed in an Optimality Theory analysis, and previews the main points to be made in the dissertation. Chapter Two examines the structure and properties of syllable onsets in Kashubian, with focus given to four topics: the appearance of prothetic consonants, the constituency of complex onsets, feature harmony in onset- nucleus interaction, and voicing assimilation. My investigation of the first two topics shows that Kashubian enforces the universal tendency for CV syllables with sonority increasing from edge to nucleus, however it also allows some forms with minimal violation of this preference. Investigation of the latter two topics shows that while there is a clear preference for featural harmony in Kashubian both within onset clusters and between onset and nucleus, the harmony is directional (right to left) and productively affects only certain features (voice in clusters, labial in the onset-nucleus interface). Chapter Three examines the structure of syllable codas in Kashubian. Syllable codas are universally less complex than onsets, which manifests itself in Kashubian in a number of ways. First, most dialects disallow any violation of the sonority hierarchy in codas. Second, intervocalic consonants are al1 syllabified in the onset to the preceding vowel unless this would result in syllabification across a prosodic word boundary, an onset cluster violating the sonority hierarchy, or a very heavy cluster. Third, whereas the appearance of underlying laryngeal and seconda. features is enforced in onsets, it is not in Kashubian codas, where they never appear. Finally, Chapter Four examines the syllable nuclei of Kashubian, focussing on three types of vowel alternation. Vowel raising, an alternation between open and closed vowels, is partially determined rnorphologically, such that certain verb stems show an open/closed alternation in certain morphological contexts, but it also occurs in a context largely determined phonologically. An examination of various contexts for a regular alternation between e/a and zero is seen as evidence for the existence of latent vowels which appear only to avoid the violation of high-ranking constraints of the Kashubian grammar. In contrast to these latent vowels, the brief excrescent vowels found in the proximity of what would otherwise be syllabic liquids are held to lack an underlying representation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ........................................................... ii Table of Contents .................................................. v Acknowledgements ................................................ v i ii Abbrevia tions ..................................................... x Guide to Kashubian Orthography .................................... xi Index of Constraints ................................................ xii Dedication ......................................................... xiv Chapter One: INTRODUCTION Introduction to Kashubian 1.1 The Kashubian language: preliminaries ......................... 2 1.1.1 A definition of Kashubian ................................. 3 1.1.2 History of research - sources of data ......................... 6 1.1.2.1 Milestones of research into the Kashubian language ...... 6 1.1.2.2 Sources and forrn of data used in dissertation ............ 14 1.2 Overview of Kashubian phonology and morphology ............. 16 1.2.1 Phonemic units ........................................... 16 1.2.2 Suprasegmental units ..................................... 25 1.2.2.1 Syllable structure ...................................... 25 1.2.2.2 Foot and Word structure ............................... 30 1.2.3 Morphology .............................................. 32 1.2.3.1 Derivational morphology .............................. 32 1.2.3.2 Inflectional morphology ............................... 33 Nouns ................................................ 33 Adjectives ................................................ 35 Verbs .................................................... 36 1.3 Optimality Theory ............................................. 37 1.3.1 General principles of OT ................................... 37 1.3.2 Constraints ............................................... 40 1.3.2.1 Markedness ............................................ 40 1.3.2.2 Faithfulness ......................................... 43 1.3.2.3 Alignment ............................. .. ............ 4 1.3.3 OT and the Lexicon ........................................ 45 1.4 Dissertation Outline ........................................... 46 1.4.1 Chapter outlines .......................................... 46 Chapter Two: Structure of the Kashubian Omet ................ 46 Chapter Three: Structure of the Kashubian Coda ................ 48 vii 4.2.2.2 Codas with rising sonority ............................. 160 4.2.2.3 Suffixes .............................................. 162 4.2.2.4 Prepositions .......................................... 164 4.2.2.5 Prefixes ............................................... 169 4.2.2.6 Derived imperfective stems ............................ 172 4.3 Minor syllables ................................................ 173 4.4 Chapter summary ............................................. 174 APPENDIX: The Kashubian Syllable .Experimental Evidence ......... 175 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many have been those who have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the writing of this thesis, and 1 would like to thank them all. Indeed, they are so many that it is not possible to name them al1 here, but 1 would like to mention some who have made a particularly significant contribution. A special contribution has been made by my teachers of linguistics and Slavic languages. My first teacher of linguistics, Geoff OfGrady, sparked my interest in this subject and nurtured it through further courses in phonetics and comparative Indo-European, laying the foundation for my work in forma1 linguistics. Gunter Schaarschmidt for his part awakened me to the charm of the West Slavic languages and has always served as my example as a scholar of Slavic linguistics. It was thanks to Gunter and to Thom Hess that 1 returned to the University of Victoria Linguistics Department in 1989 after spending the 1980's exploring different avenues, and it was Barrv Carlson who guided me through rny M.A. thesis on Kashubian stress and encouraged me to continue on with doctoral studies at UVic. 1 am particularly grateful to my supervisor Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, whose thorough examination of my work and insistence on clarity and completeness has ensured that this dissertation is of a calibre worthy of a doctoral degree from this university. Those who enabled me to reach fluency in the Polish language, without which the Kashubian language and the culture in which it arose are nigh inaccessible, are deserving of special mention. Particular honour in this respect is due to my wife Maria, who with her daughter Agnieszka let me into her life, thus allowing me to learn what 'Wawel' means to a Pole, and who introduced me to the Kashubian culture. Thanks are also due the many Kashubians who have reached out me and others interested in leaming the specific characteristics of their langürige, in particular Eugeniusz Golqb(e)k, whose passion for the Kashubian language and culture has borne the literary fruits tvhich have made no small contribution to the revival of interest in the Kashubian language in recent years. Finally, thanks is due to the many people, both