DOCSLIB.ORG

Portuguese Syllables Through the Lenses of English Language Loanwords

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Portuguese Syllables Through the Lenses of English Language Loanwords 2º CICLO DE ESTUDOS ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ MESTRADO EM LINGUÍSTICA ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Portuguese Syllables Through the Lenses of English Language Loanwords Clara Calado do Nascimento M 2020 Clara Calado do Nascimento Portuguese Syllables Through the Lenses of English Language Loanwords Dissertação realizada no âmbito do Mestrado em Linguística, orientada pelo Professor Doutor João Manuel Pires da Silva e Almeida Veloso. Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto Setembro de 2020 Clara Calado do Nascimento Portuguese Syllables Through the Lenses of English Language Loanwords Dissertação realizada no âmbito do Mestrado em Linguística, orientada pelo Professor Doutor João Manuel Pires da Silva e Almeida Veloso. Membros do Júri Professor Doutor (escreva o nome do/a Professor/a) Faculdade (nome da faculdade) - Universidade (nome da universidade) Professor Doutor (escreva o nome do/a Professor/a) Faculdade (nome da faculdade) - Universidade (nome da universidade) Professor Doutor (escreva o nome do/a Professor/a) Faculdade (nome da faculdade) - Universidade (nome da universidade) Classificação obtida: (escreva o valor) Valores Aos meus pais e minha irmã List of Contents Declaração de honra 4 Acknowledgement 5 Resumo 6 Abstract 7 List of Figures 8 ​ List of Tables 9 List of Graphs 10 List of Abbreviations 10 ​ Introduction 12 ​ 1. Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 19 ​ 1.1.The Syllable Within Phonology 22 ​ 1.1.1.Syllable Structure 24 1.1.1.1.Onsets 26 ​ 1.1.1.2.Codas 27 ​ 1.2.Phonotactics 28 ​ 1.2.1.The Sonority Principle 28 1.2.2 Consonant Clusters. 29 ​ 1.3.Loanwords 31 2. Chapter 2: The Research 34 ​ 2.1.Design 34 ​ 2.1.1. Procedures 37 ​ 2.1.2. Participants 37 2.1.3. Words & Syllables Tested 39 ​ 2.1.4. Instructions 40 ​ 3. Chapter 3: Results and Analysis 43 3.1.Results 43 ​ 3.1.1.Level of English 44 ​ 3.1.2.Variety of Portuguese Spoken 49 ​ 2 3.2.Analysis 51 ​ 3.2.1. The Answers 52 ​ Conclusion 60 ​ References 63 ​ Annex 66 ​ 3 Declaração de honra Declaro que a presente tese é de minha autoria e não foi utilizada previamente noutro curso ou unidade curricular, desta ou de outra instituição. As referências a outros autores (afirmações, ideias, pensamentos) respeitam escrupulosamente as regras da atribuição, e encontram-se devidamente indicadas no texto e nas referências bibliográficas, de acordo com as normas de referenciação. Tenho consciência de que a prática de plágio e auto-plágio constitui um ilícito académico. Porto, 28 de setembro de 2020 Clara Calado do Nascimento 4 Agradecimentos Primeiramente gostaria de agradecer ao Professor Doutor João Veloso pelos ensinamentos e paciência depois de minha longa ausência da linguística. Aos colegas do mestrado, obrigada por fazerem dele um processo mais leve. A todos que participaram da minha enquete para este estudo, agradeço. Aos meus amigos, obrigada sempre, em especial à Lauren e Arlene pelos ouvidos amigos. À Carolina Contreras, que, ao longo da minha estadia em Portugal, passou de colega de turma a minha “ordinária favorita”. À minha família, que de longe está sempre presente. Minha gratidão post mortem à minha madrinha Vivina e ao meu tio Aramis, pois sei que se aqui estivessem estariam vibrando por mim. Aos meus pais e minha irmã, não há palavras que possa descrever como sou grata por tudo: os estímulos, as risadas, as conversas, e não só. Muito obrigada. Thank ​ ​ you. 5 Resumo Em um mundo cada vez mais globalizado, as línguas começam a permear fronteiras. Inglês, a atual Lingua Franca, contribuiu e continua continuamente a contribuir com vocabulário que entra em outras línguas. Contudo, essas palavras assumem características da língua adotante. Em português, um língua de preferência por sílabas de tipo CV, é comum que falantes adicionem uma vogal para evitar um obstruente em posição de coda. Este trabalho pede que participantes julguem quantas sílabas tem um empréstimo- as respostas devem dizer se os mesmo permitem codas estrangeiras ou optaram por ums sílaba tipo CV, como a sua língua mãe prefere. Palavras-chave: [empréstimos, sílabas, codas] ​ 6 Abstract In an ever more globalized world, languages start to permeate boundaries. Today’s Lingua Franca, English, has and is continuously contributing to vocabulary entering other languages. However, these words take on characteristics of the adopting language. In Portuguese, a language with a preference for CV syllables, it is common for speakers to epenthesize a vowel to avoid an obstruent in Coda position. This research paper asks participants to judge how many syllables a loanword has- the answers should tell if they allowed the foreign Codas, or opted for a CV type syllable, like their mother tongue prefers. Key-words: [Loanwords, syllables, codas] ​ 7 List of Figures FIGURE 1- STRESSED VOWELS 21 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 2 - UNSTRESSED VOWELS 21 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 3- NASAL VOWELS 22 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 4 - PROSODIC HIERARCHY IN METRICAL PHONOLOGY 23 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 5- SYLLABLE STRUCTURE 25 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 6 - INTRODUCTIOON TO THE SURVEY 37 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIGURE 7- INTRODUCTION AND INSTRUCTIONS TO QUESTION SECTION 41 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 8 List of Tables TABELA 1 – CONSONANTAL WORD POSITION 19 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 2 – SEGMENTS ALLOWED IN EP CODA 27 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 3 – THE SONORITY SCALE OF PORTUGUESE 29 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 4 – CONSONANT CLUSTERS IN THE PORTUGUSE SYLLABLE 30 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 5 – EXEMPLES OF PROCESSES OF CODA SIMPLIFICATION IN PORTUGUESE 33 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 6 – SENTENCES USED IN TEH QUESTIONNAIRE 35 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 7 – NUMBER OF SYLLABLES IN WORDS USED IN THE STUDY 39 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ TABELA 8 – SEGMENTS FOUND IN CODAS OF LOANWORDS 40 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 9 List of Graphs GRAPH 1- GENDER OF PARTICIPANTS 44 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 2- NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS BY ENGLISH LEVEL 45 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 3- ENGLISH LEVEL AND VARIETY OF PORTUGUESE 46 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 4- ENGLISH LEVEL AND EDUCATION 47 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 5- ENGLISH LEVEL AND PARTICIPANTS’ GENDER 47 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 6- ENGLISH LEVEL AND AGE 49 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 7- GENDER AND VARIETY SPOKEN 50 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 8- AGE AND VARIETY SPOKEN 50 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 9- LIGHT 51 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 10- BIG 51 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 11- DESKTOP 52 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 12- FEEDBACK 53 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 13- LOVE 53 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 14- FIT 54 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 15- NOTEBOOK 54 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 16- LAPTOP 55 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 17- WORD 55 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 18- DOWNLOAD 56 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 19- POP 56 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 20- OFFLINE 57 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 21- LIVE 57 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 22- OFFSET 58 ​ ​ ​ ​ GRAPH 23- BOB 58 ​ ​ ​ ​ 10 11 List de abbreviations BP BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE ​ ​ ​ C CONSONANT ​ EP EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE ​ ​ ​ V VOWEL ​ 12 Introduction Background Sounds are a basic and commonplace feature of human language, and their cognitive organization and processing, i.e. Phonology, are interests which are not new to the field of Linguistics. From Panini’s study of Sanskrit’s sounds, Jacob Grimm’s and Karl Verner’s observations on sound changes, the establishment of modern day linguistics with Jan Baudoin de Courtenay’s notion of a phoneme, Ferdinand de Saussure’s posthumous “Course in General Linguistics,” to Nikolai Trubetzkoy’s 1939, “Principles of Phonology,” an important foundation in modern phonology was rooted. The previously mentioned scholars are a few of many who have had the curiosity to understand what drives language, particularly from an audible and acoustic point of view. Within Linguistics, Phonology is the field that studies sound organization and patterns. In a most systematic manner, sounds are put together to convey meaning, giving way to different languages. These sounds or segments behave a certain way and ​ under special circumstances, group together to what speakers know as the syllables, stress and melody of languages. Linguistic loaning, the phenomenon which looks at words taken from one language into another one’s vocabulary, has sparked interest and has yielded an amplitude of studies ranging through many fields of Linguistics including Phonology. The examination of nativization of foreign words into a given language can be not only interesting, but helpful in sociolinguistics, history, anthropology and linguistics (Veloso 2017). Furthermore, it can be insightful to other areas such as foreign language education and speech and language pathology and their many specific applications. Speakers are exposed to more and more languages, and consequently new sounds and phonotactic rules in an era of intense travel, technology use, and overall globalization. More than ever, vocabulary is permeating from one language into another. This does tend to be biased, however, from English into other languages due 13 to both the political and cultural impact of the United Kingdom and the United States in throughout history (Philipston 2013). For example, English was adopted as the Lingua Franca in some territories even after the British colonial rule ended, as in Nigeria and India (Migge and Léglise 2007). Philipston 2013 argues that Linguistic imperialism is intrinsically linked to other areas of life like “ culture, education, the media, communication, the economy, politics, and military activities.” The adoption of English as a Lingua Franca is becoming more common as for example, in the education sector (Michaud and Colpitts 2015). Freestanding English can be found in a variety of aspects of life, including politics, economy, education, entertainment, technology,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Laryngeal Features in German* Michael Jessen Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden Catherine Ringen University of Iowa
    Phonology 19 (2002) 189–218. f 2002 Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.1017/S0952675702004311 Printed in the United Kingdom Laryngeal features in German* Michael Jessen Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden Catherine Ringen University of Iowa It is well known that initially and when preceded by a word that ends with a voiceless sound, German so-called ‘voiced’ stops are usually voiceless, that intervocalically both voiced and voiceless stops occur and that syllable-final (obstruent) stops are voiceless. Such a distribution is consistent with an analysis in which the contrast is one of [voice] and syllable-final stops are devoiced. It is also consistent with the view that in German the contrast is between stops that are [spread glottis] and those that are not. On such a view, the intervocalic voiced stops arise because of passive voicing of the non-[spread glottis] stops. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental results that support the view that German has underlying [spread glottis] stops, not [voice] stops. 1 Introduction In spite of the fact that voiced (obstruent) stops in German (and many other Germanic languages) are markedly different from voiced stops in languages like Spanish, Russian and Hungarian, all of these languages are usually claimed to have stops that contrast in voicing. For example, Wurzel (1970), Rubach (1990), Hall (1993) and Wiese (1996) assume that German has underlying voiced stops in their different accounts of Ger- man syllable-final devoicing in various rule-based frameworks. Similarly, Lombardi (1999) assumes that German has underlying voiced obstruents in her optimality-theoretic (OT) account of syllable-final laryngeal neutralisation and assimilation in obstruent clusters.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary of Key Terms
    Glossary of Key Terms accent: a pronunciation variety used by a specific group of people. allophone: different phonetic realizations of a phoneme. allophonic variation: variations in how a phoneme is pronounced which do not create a meaning difference in words. alveolar: a sound produced near or on the alveolar ridge. alveolar ridge: the small bony ridge behind the upper front teeth. approximants: obstruct the air flow so little that they could almost be classed as vowels if they were in a different context (e.g. /w/ or /j/). articulatory organs – (or articulators): are the different parts of the vocal tract that can change the shape of the air flow. articulatory settings or ‘voice quality’: refers to the characteristic or long-term positioning of articulators by individual or groups of speakers of a particular language. aspirated: phonemes involve an auditory plosion (‘puff of air’) where the air can be heard passing through the glottis after the release phase. assimilation: a process where one sound is influenced by the characteristics of an adjacent sound. back vowels: vowels where the back part of the tongue is raised (like ‘two’ and ‘tar’) bilabial: a sound that involves contact between the two lips. breathy voice: voice quality where whisper is combined with voicing. cardinal vowels: a set of phonetic vowels used as reference points which do not relate to any specific language. central vowels: vowels where the central part of the tongue is raised (like ‘fur’ and ‘sun’) centring diphthongs: glide towards /ə/. citation form: the way we say a word on its own. close vowel: where the tongue is raised as close as possible to the roof of the mouth.
    [Show full text]
  • Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese/English Interphonology
    BETTONI-TECHIO, Melissa; KOERICH, Rosana Denise. Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem – ReVEL . V. 4, n. 7, agosto de 2006. ISSN 1678-8931 [www.revel.inf.br]. PALATALIZATION IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE /E NGLISH INTERPHONOLOGY Melissa Bettoni-Techio 1 Rosana Denise Koerich 2 [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT: This research focuses on palatalization of final alveolar stops by Brazilian learners of English. Thirty learners from the pre-intermediate level of an English course read a sentence list in English, containing word-final alveolar stops, and a sentence list in BP, containing word-final te and de . Considering L1 transfer, it was expected that the production of English final alveolar stops would be problematic. This production was examined according to two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that absence of palatalization in BP would indicate absence of palatalization in BP/English interphonology and the second hypothesis was that the phonological environments which trigger palatalization in BP/English interphonology would not coincide with those environments which trigger palatalization in BP. Both hypotheses were supported. KEYWORDS: Alveolar stops; coda; interphonology; palatalization; phonological environment. INTRODUCTION In the last decades, studies on interlanguage (IL) phonology have gradually gained considerable space and respect in the field of Applied Linguistics (Major 1998; Baptista 2000). In Brazil, a growing but still limited body of research has been conducted on IL phonology of Brazilian learners of English concerning the process of vowel epenthesis (e.g. Tarone 1980/1987; Baptista & Silva Filho 1997; Fernandes 1997; Rebello 1997; Koerich 2002; Rauber 2002; and Silveira 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • From "RP" to "Estuary English"
    From "RP" to "Estuary English": The concept 'received' and the debate about British pronunciation standards Hamburg 1998 Author: Gudrun Parsons Beckstrasse 8 D-20357 Hamburg e-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................................i List of Abbreviations............................................................................... ii 0. Introduction ....................................................................................1 1. Received Pronunciation .................................................................5 1.1. The History of 'RP' ..................................................................5 1.2. The History of RP....................................................................9 1.3. Descriptions of RP ...............................................................14 1.4. Summary...............................................................................17 2. Change and Variation in RP.............................................................18 2.1. The Vowel System ................................................................18 2.1.1. Diphthongisation of Long Vowels ..................................18 2.1.2. Fronting of /!/ and Lowering of /"/................................21 2.2. The Consonant System ........................................................23 2.2.1. The Glottal Stop.............................................................23 2.2.2. Vocalisation of [#]...........................................................26
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis of Segmental and Suprasegmental Features of the Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GAM)
    Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5766 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0484 (Online) Vol.8, No.24, 2018 A Comparative Analysis of Segmental and Suprasegmental Features of the Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GAM) NWABUEZE, Ejike E. Department of English Language, Faculty of Arts and the Use of English Language, School of General Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka OKOYE, Mercy The use of English unit, School of General Studies, Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka OLUCHI CHRIS OKEUGO Ph.D. The use of English unit, School of General Studies, Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka Abstract: This is a comparative analysis of the Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GAM). The researcher adopted a theoretical approach. Two dialects: the RP and CAM are adequately and specifically considered. They represent widely two standard dialects of English language used in the United Kingdom and the North America. They are equally the dialects taught to non-native learner of English outside the United Kingdom and the North America. In order to arrive at comprehensive findings, the researcher examines the segmental and suprasegmental features of the RP and CAM. The segmentals are vowels and consonants, while the segmentals are stress, rhythm and intonation. Also, in order to adequate information for this research, books, articles and (from the World Wide Web) on the RP and GAM are consulted. The findings reveal that there are similarities and differences in segmental and suprasegmental features of the RP. The study concluded that Keywords: Comparative Analysis, Segmental and Suprasegmental, Received Pronunciation, General American Gam Introduction Phonology etymologically is a Greek word coined from phono logy .
    [Show full text]
  • Sound and Fury: English Phonology 2
    Sound and Fury: English Phonology 2 Sound and Fury: English Phonology /'sawnd @n 'fjU®ij: 'IèglIS f@'nAl@Aij/ In this chapter, we look at English sound patterns. We learn about the distinct sounds that make up words (phonemes), and the mech- anisms in the vocal tract that are employed to produce them. We learn a system of writing that can be used to accurately represent pronunciation, the International Phonetic Alphabet. We think about how sounds group into families, and consider one example of sound change from the prehistory of English. This groundwork will allow us, in future chapters, to understand restrictions on phonological words in English, to look at other historical changes that have altered the pronunciation of English words in the past, and to discuss differences between dialects of English spoken today. It will also enable us to analyze other kinds of processes in English words, when we look at morphology. 2.1 English Spelling and English Pronunciation The first thing we have to do, when considering the pronunciation of English words, is find a way to represent their pronunciation accurately in print (since you can’t hear me talking). English spelling is notoriously bad at this: probably, at least once in your life as a literate English speaker, you have mispronounced a word in speech that you learned from a book; that is, you’ve probably used a spelling pronunciation. (I certainly have.) The mismatch between spelling and pronunciation is the reason that English spelling is a hard thing to master. 21 EWC02 21 17/10/05, 11:13 AM Sound and Fury: English Phonology orthography, n.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Old English Phonology After Our First Few Lessons Using This Language
    1 Old English Phonology After our first few lessons using This Language, A River, I’ve decided that you need supplementary materials that are a little bit clearer and more schematic, as well as a little bit more complete. The following pages are intended to supplement the material on pp. 125-132. The Old English Alphabet The Anglo-Saxons acquired the alphabet that they used in manuscripts from Christians who led efforts to convert them from the 580s onward. The Christians, as the inheritors of Roman textual traditions, used the Latin alphabet. When Christian monks began writing down Old English texts, they discovered that Old English included a number of sounds that the Latin alphabet did not represent easily. For this reason, they adapted a few runic characters into the Latin alphabet that they used to represent Old English. A momentary digression about Runes The runic alphabet was used throughout Northern Europe among communities who spoke languages that were part of the larger Germanic language family, but it was an alphabet that was best adapted for carving and inscription on stone, wood, metal, and bone rather than for writing on parchment or vellum. The oldest surviving artifact that certainly reflects a runic text is a bone comb from approximately 150AD found in a bog in Denmark (Looijenga 161). The inscription reads ᚺᚫᚱᛃᚫ: “harja.” The text may mean “warrior,” or “member of the Harii tribe,” or “hair.” Personally, I have always preferred the last interpretation because it seems like an amusingly obvious thing to put on a comb. In any case, the runic alphabets employed single graphical representations for phonemes that Germanic languages had but that Latin did not: <æ> ‘æsh’, which is also the character used in the IPA for the low front vowel phoneme in English /æ/; <þ> ‘thorn’, which represented the phoneme /θ/; <ƿ> ‘wynn’, which represented the phoneme /w/.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonological Interaction in Spanish-English Bilinguals: Effects
    Florida International University FIU Digital Commons MA in Linguistics Final Projects College of Arts, Sciences & Education 11-27-2018 Phonological Interaction in Spanish-English Bilinguals: Effects of Cognate Usage on Voice Onset Time of Voiced Stops Sophia Andrea Younes Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/linguistics_ma Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Younes, Sophia Andrea, "Phonological Interaction in Spanish-English Bilinguals: Effects of Cognate Usage on Voice Onset Time of Voiced Stops" (2018). MA in Linguistics Final Projects. 8. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/linguistics_ma/8 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in MA in Linguistics Final Projects by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida PHONOLOGICAL INTERACTION IN SPANISH-ENGLISH BILINGUALS: EFFECTS OF COGNATE USAGE ON VOICE ONSET TIME OF VOICED STOPS A research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in LINGUISTICS by Sophia Andrea Younes 2018 To: Director, Linguistics Program College of Arts, Sciences and Education This MA Project, written by Sophia Andrea Younes, and entitled Phonological Interaction in Spanish-English Bilinguals: Effects of Cognate Usage on Voice Onset Time of Voiced Stops, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this MA Project and recommend that it be approved. Virginia C. Mueller-Gathercole Tometro Hopkins Mehmet Yavaş, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 27, 2018 The MA Project of Sophia Andrea Younes is approved.
    [Show full text]
  • English Phonology and Linguistic Theory: an Introduction to Issues, and to ‘Issues in English Phonology’
    Language Sciences 29 (2007) 117–153 www.elsevier.com/locate/langsci English phonology and linguistic theory: an introduction to issues, and to ‘Issues in English Phonology’ Philip Carr a, Patrick Honeybone b,* a De´partement d’anglais, Universite´ de Montpellier III-Paul Vale´ry, Route de Mende, 34199 Montpellier, France b Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, 14 Buccleuch Place, EH8 9LN, Scotland, UK Abstract Data from the phonology of English has been crucial in the development of phonological and sociophonological theory throughout its recent past. If we had not had English to investigate, we claim, with both its unique and its widely-shared phonological phenomena, linguistic theory might have developed quite differently. In this article, we document some of the ways in which particular English phonological phenomena have driven theoretical developments in phonology and related areas, as a contribution to the history of recent phonological theorising. As we do this, we set in their context the other individual articles in the Special Issue of Language Sciences on ‘Issues in English Phonology’ to which this article is an introduction, explaining both their contents and how they relate to and seek to advance our understanding of the English phonological phenomena in question. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: English phonology; History of phonological theory; Sociophonology; Vowel shift; Lexical strata; Lenition; Tense–lax 1. Introduction Is it still worth investigating the phonology of English? After all, English is probably the best studied of all languages, so we might wonder whether it can still provide data that is * Corresponding author.
    [Show full text]
  • Polish Katarzyna DZIUBALSKA-KOŁACZYK and 1 Bogdan WALCZAK ( )
    Polish Katarzyna DZIUBALSKA-KOŁACZYK and 1 Bogdan WALCZAK ( ) 1. The identity 1.1. The name In the 10th century, individual West Slavic languages were differentiated from the western group, Polish among others. The name of the language comes from the name of a tribe of Polans (Polanie) who inhabited the midlands of the river Warta around Gniezno and Poznań, and whose tribal state later became the germ of the Polish state. Etymologically, Polanie means ‘the inhabitants of fields’. The Latin sources provide also other forms of the word: Polanii, Polonii, Poloni (at the turn of the 10th and 11th century king Bolesław Chrobry was referred to as dux Poloniorum in The Life of St. Adalbert [Żywot św. Wojciecha]) (cf. Klemensiewicz : 1961-1972). 1.2. The family affiliation 1.2.1. Origin The Polish language is most closely related to the extinct Polabian- Pomeranian dialects (whose only live representative is Kashubian) and together with them is classified by Slavicists into the West Lechitic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is less closely related to the remaining West Slavic languages, i.e. Slovak, Czech and High- and Low Sorbian, and still less closely to the East and (1) Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (School of English at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) is Professor of English linguistics and Head of the School. She has published extensively on phonology and phonetics, first and second language acquisition and morphology, in all the areas emphasizing the contrastive aspect (especially with Polish, but also other languages, e.g. German, Italian). She has taught Polish linguistics at the University of Vienna.
    [Show full text]
  • Insertion of Vowels in English Syllabic Consonantal Clusters Pronounced by L1 Polish Speakers
    Open Linguistics 2021; 7: 331–341 Research Article Urszula Chwesiuk* Insertion of vowels in English syllabic consonantal clusters pronounced by L1 Polish speakers https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2021-0014 received August 11, 2020; accepted April 29, 2021 Abstract: The aim of this study was an attempt to verify whether Polish speakers of English insert a vowel in the word-final clusters containing a consonant and a syllabic /l/ or /n/ due to the L1–L2 transfer. L1 Polish speakers are mostly unaware of the existence of syllabic consonants; hence, they use the Polish phono- tactics and articulate a vocalic sound before a final sonorant which is deprived of its syllabicity. This phenomenon was examined among L1 Polish speakers, 1-year students of English studies, and the recording sessions were repeated a year later. Since, over that time, they were instructed with regard to phonetics and phonology but also the overall practical language learning, the results demonstrated the occurrence of the phenomenon of vowel insertion on different levels of advanced command of English. If the vowels were inserted, their quality and length were monitored and analysed. With regard to the English system, pronouncing vowel /ə/ before a syllabic consonant is possible, yet not usual. That is why another aim of this study is to examine to what extent the vowels articulated by the subjects differ from the standard pronunciation of non-final /ə/. The quality differences between the vowels articulated in the words ending with /l/ and /n/ were examined as well as the potential influence from the difference between /l/ and /n/ on the occurrence of vowel reduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Introductory Phonology (2009, Malden, MA: Blackwell)
    Chapter 13A: Syllabification in English Bruce Hayes Department of Linguistics UCLA This is a chapter that I decided not to include in my textbook Introductory Phonology (2009, Malden, MA: Blackwell). I’m fond of the data, but ambisyllabicity seems to be a sufficiently controversial hypothesis in phonology that the chapter may not be suitable for use in a broadly-distributed text. Comments and corrections welcome: [email protected]. Copyright 2009 by Bruce Hayes. This material may be freely used for teaching, study, or any other nonprofit purpose. 1. Ambisyllabicity English has some puzzling cases with regard to syllabification. Consider words like butter, camel, upper, Lenny, etc. Native intuition seems to waver on whether these should divide as /b.t‘/ or as /bt.‘/. This is different from what we see in many other languages, where intuitions on how to divide syllables are clearer. The phonological treatment of the English “blurred syllabification” is a long-standing issue in phonology, and various analyses have been proposed. The one I will describe here seems to work fairly well. The basic idea is that some consonants can belong to more than one syllable at a time; in standard terminology they are called ambisyllabic. Ambisyllabic consonants can most easily be depicted using the tree notation for syllable structure: they are consonants that are dominated by more than one σ: butter camel upper Lenny σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ b t ‘ k æ m l ̩ p ‘ l n i Introductory Phonology Chapter 13A: Syllabification in English p. 2 Such a representation would account for the ambiguous intuitions speakers have concerning the syllabification of such words.
    [Show full text]