Phonetic Patterns in Oto-Manguean Tonal Systems

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Phonetic Patterns in Oto-Manguean Tonal Systems Phonetic patterns in Oto-Manguean tonal systems Christian T. DiCanio [email protected] Haskins Laboratories http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/∼dicanio 5/14/14 Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 1 Introduction Typology and tonal systems How useful is a typological perspective for the study of tonal phonetics? 1 Structural diversity is abundant. Structural differences among languages contribute to phonetic variation in tone production/perception, even across well-known languages. 2 The phonetic timing of tones differs dramatically. There is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how tones are coordinated in larger utterances/units. 3 Models of speech production should be inclusive with respect to such cross-linguistic variability. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 2 Introduction Typology and tonal systems How useful is a typological perspective for the study of tonal phonetics? 1 Structural diversity is abundant. Structural differences among languages contribute to phonetic variation in tone production/perception, even across well-known languages. 2 The phonetic timing of tones differs dramatically. There is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how tones are coordinated in larger utterances/units. 3 Models of speech production should be inclusive with respect to such cross-linguistic variability. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 2 Introduction Typology and tonal systems How useful is a typological perspective for the study of tonal phonetics? 1 Structural diversity is abundant. Structural differences among languages contribute to phonetic variation in tone production/perception, even across well-known languages. 2 The phonetic timing of tones differs dramatically. There is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how tones are coordinated in larger utterances/units. 3 Models of speech production should be inclusive with respect to such cross-linguistic variability. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 2 Introduction Typology and tonal systems How useful is a typological perspective for the study of tonal phonetics? 1 Structural diversity is abundant. Structural differences among languages contribute to phonetic variation in tone production/perception, even across well-known languages. 2 The phonetic timing of tones differs dramatically. There is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how tones are coordinated in larger utterances/units. 3 Models of speech production should be inclusive with respect to such cross-linguistic variability. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 2 Introduction Typology and tonal systems How useful is a typological perspective for the study of tonal phonetics? 1 Structural diversity is abundant. Structural differences among languages contribute to phonetic variation in tone production/perception, even across well-known languages. 2 The phonetic timing of tones differs dramatically. There is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how tones are coordinated in larger utterances/units. 3 Models of speech production should be inclusive with respect to such cross-linguistic variability. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 2 Introduction E. Zsiga, R. Nitisaroj 347 Structural differences? Mandarinfalling slightly and vs. remaining Thai as low or lower than the mid tone for the first half of the syllable, then rising steeply in the second half. The low tone falls steadily, reaching the bottom of the pitch range at the end of the syllable. The falling tone is realized as a rise-fall contour, and the rising tone as a fall-rise contour. Contextual tonal ariations 67 &## 160 Figure 1 Tone 1 Contour shapes of Thai tones Tone 2 %$" ! in citation form. Representative examples from one speaker 140 % Tone 3 %"# Tone 4 120 (Hz) 0 f %%" " &'()*+%, 100 %## # !$" 80 $ 0 25 50 75 100 !"# # #'! #'% #'& #'( #'" Normalized time (%) )*+,-.) Figure 2 . Mean f 0 contours (averaged over speakers and tokens ; n 48) of four Mandarin tones in the monosyllable / m a / produced in isolation . The time is normalized , with all tones plotted with their average duration Creating these complex contours from simple H and L associated to the syllable proportional to the average duration of Tone 3 . is certainly possible. Such phonetic mapping rules would be complex, however. A What does a falling tone look like? Whatsingle accounts H associated for to the asyllable delayed would havefall to be mapped in into a level-rising scooped contour, while an H linked as part of a falling tone would correspond to a quick Thai? 3 . Results rise to the top of the pitch range. The complexity of attempting to map H and L 3 . 1 . Tones produced in isolation auto segments onto the actual contours of the tones of Thai leads Abramson (1979) to reject a compositional analysis of the contours. He argues (p.7) that the data “lend To establish the canonical forms of the four Mandarin tones produced byno the phonetic plausibility” to arguments for the specification of rising and falling tones (Figures speakers in this from study , tones Xu produced (1997); in isolation Zsiga were analyzed and first Nitisaroj . Fig . 2 showsas sequences (2007)) of H and L autosegments. the average f 0 contour of the syllable / m a / in the four tones , obtained by averaging over all tokens produced by all eight speakers (48 utterances for eachFor phonetic support of the argument one would expect to be able to devise a tone) and plotted as functions of average relative time of each segment , with theformula by which the dynamic tones were obviously to be derived from the shape average duration of Tone 3 as the reference duration (100%) . The cross symbol ‘‘ ’’of the static tones. Even the citation forms, let alone the F0 curves of running indicates boundaries between m and a . Tone 1 starts with a high f valuespeech, provide no acoustic basis for such a claim. It seems psychologically far Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) / / / / Oto-Manguean 0 tone 5/14/14 3 (near 130 Hz) and stays around that level throughout the syllable . Tone 2 starts withmore reasonable to suppose that the speaker of Thai stores a suitable tonal shape as part of his internal representation of each monosyllabic lexical item. (p.7) a low f 0 (near 110 Hz) , then falls slightly before rising (starting at 20% into the vowel) throughout the remainder of the syllable . Tone 3 starts with an f 0 valueMorén and Zsiga argue, however, that a mora-based representation as in (2) slightly lower than the onset of Tone 2 , falls to the lowest f 0 of all the four tonesdoes allow a straightforward mapping from autosegments to the acoustics of Thai (about 90 Hz) right at the vowel midpoint , then rises sharply to the end oftones. the During moras with no phonological tone, pitch falls gradually to or within syllable . Tone 4 starts with the highest f 0 value of the four tones (140 Hz) , continuesthe mid range. Phonologically-specified moras reach a high or low pitch inflection to rise before reaching the maximum about one fifth of the way into the vowel , at then their right edge. Thus mid tones, with no phonological specification, remain fairly falls sharply to the end of the syllable . level throughout their duration. High tones are specified only on the second mora, In terms of duration , Tone 4 is the shortest tone (214 ms on average) , Toneand 3 is thus remain in the mid range during the first half of the syllable, begin to turn the longest (349 ms) , while Tones 1 and 2 have intermediate durations , with Toneupward 2 at syllable midpoint, and reach their high point at the rightmost edge of the (273 ms) longer than Tone 1 (247 ms) . These duration patterns match those found in previous studies (e . g ., Lin , 1988) . Language and Speech Downloaded from http://las.sagepub.com at Bibliotheques de l'Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 on April 20, 2009 The f 0 patterns of tones produced in isolation reflect relatively directly the canonical forms of the tones . In multisyllabic utterances , the canonical forms will be distorted by various factors , including the adjacent onset and of fset values of the neighboring tones . As suggested earlier and demonstrated by Xu (1994 a ) , it is High-level tone (55) Mid-level tone (33) Low-rising tone (24) Low-falling tone (21) High-falling tone (51) 330 F2 F2 F2 F2 F2 300 Introduction 270 Coordination differences? Mandarin vs. Taiwanese (Hz) 240 0 f 210 Mandarin falling tones (left, (Xu, 1994)) undergo greater coarticulation 180 than Taiwanese falling tones (right, (Peng, 1997)). (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) 150 Riang Fa • 330 180- 180 F2 F2 F2 F2 F2 x _ / x / _ / x 300/ x Compatible _ _ Context •, / / X_ _ / X X 270! 160 240 (Hz) 0 /_ / / / _ x f x 210x x Conflicting _ _ Context / ! /! X X X 180X _ _ } (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) 150 120 120 –20 30 80 130 180 230 280 330 –20 30 80 130 180 230 280 330 –20 30 80 130 180 230 280 330 –20 30 80 130 180 230 280 330 –20 30 80 130 180 230 280 330 Duration (ms) Duration (ms) Duration (ms) Duration Duration (ms) Duration (ms) Panels (a) – (e) Panels (f ) – ( j) FIG. 2. Tone patternsof trisy!labi½words and phrasesused for F0 mea- — — I phrase-initial — — 55 surements. Compelhie, Faster — — M phrase-medial Christian DiCanio — — (((Haskins))) 33 Oto-Manguean tone 5/14/14 4 – – – – F phrase-final -- Compatible, – – – –Slowe• 21 - - - - - - U utterance-final •-• Conlhcfng.Faster C. Recording Figure 5 . Subject F2 : Mean duration and f 0 of each target tone followed by dif ferent tones (panels f – j) in dif ferent prosodic positions (panels a – e) . ......... Conf•ct'ng, Slower For eachof the 16 patternslisted in Fig. 2, two words or phraseswere found. They were repeatedfive timesand FIG. 3. Mean F0 slopes,mean F0 heightand mean durationfor the printedin Chinesein randomorder.
Recommended publications
  • (ELDP) APPLICATION for a Major Documentation Project
    ENDANGERED LANGUAGES DOCUMENTATION PROGRAMME (ELDP) APPLICATION FOR A Major Documentation Project Read the Guidelines carefully in planning your proposal, and the Terms & Conditions of Award before completing and submitting an application. The application form must be completed in English. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. Submit one original hard copy with signatures which should be single-sided and unbound and submit an electronic copy. The electronic and paper copies of the application must be identical in content (except that signatures are not required in the electronic copy). Only material specifically requested in the application should be sent. The original hard copy to be submitted by the deadline to: ELDP Grants Coordinator Endangered Languages Documentation Programme School of Oriental and African Studies 10 Thornhaugh Street London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom The electronic version must be a single file in MS Word or pdf format (multiple files are not accepted) and must be emailed by the deadline to [email protected] All copies must arrive by 3rd August 2009 You should only send the information requested in the application form. If you are successful in receiving a grant you will be asked to provide the following: • evidence that the relevant permissions and visas have been secured (if required) • any other information required by the panel after assessment • an assurance that an indication of support from the language community will be provided once the project has begun • evidence of institutional pay scales used to calculate salary costs - 1 - v0901 APPLICATION FOR A Major Documentation Project Grant Ref Number: MDP Q1 Applicant details First Name Jonathan Title Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Catálogo De Las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales: Variantes Lingüísticas De México Con Sus Autodenominaciones Y Referencias Geoestadísticas
    Lunes 14 de enero de 2008 DIARIO OFICIAL (Primera Sección) 31 INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE LENGUAS INDIGENAS CATALOGO de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales: Variantes Lingüísticas de México con sus autodenominaciones y referencias geoestadísticas. Al margen un logotipo, que dice: Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas. CATÁLOGO DE LAS LENGUAS INDÍGENAS NACIONALES: VARIANTES LINGÜÍSTICAS DE MÉXICO CON SUS AUTODENOMINACIONES Y REFERENCIAS GEOESTADÍSTICAS. El Consejo Nacional del Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas, con fundamento en lo dispuesto por los artículos 2o. de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos; 15, 16, 20 y tercero transitorio de la Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas; 1o., 3o. y 45 de la Ley Orgánica de la Administración Pública Federal; 1o., 2o. y 11 de la Ley Federal de las Entidades Paraestatales; y los artículos 1o. y 10 fracción II del Estatuto Orgánico del Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas; y CONSIDERANDO Que por decreto publicado en el Diario Oficial de la Federación el 14 de agosto de 2001, se reformó y adicionó la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, determinando el carácter único e indivisible de la Nación Mexicana y su composición pluricultural sustentada en sus pueblos indígenas. Que con esta reforma constitucional nuestra Carta Magna reafirma su carácter social, al dedicar un artículo específico al reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas. Que el artículo 2o. constitucional establece que “los pueblos indígenas son aquellos que descienden de poblaciones que habitaban en el territorio actual del país al iniciarse la colonización y que conservan sus propias instituciones sociales, económicas, culturales y políticas, o parte de ellas.” Que uno de los derechos de los pueblos y las comunidades indígenas que reconoce el apartado “A” del artículo 2o.
    [Show full text]
  • TEI and the Documentation of Mixtepec-Mixtec Jack Bowers
    Language Documentation and Standards in Digital Humanities: TEI and the documentation of Mixtepec-Mixtec Jack Bowers To cite this version: Jack Bowers. Language Documentation and Standards in Digital Humanities: TEI and the documen- tation of Mixtepec-Mixtec. Computation and Language [cs.CL]. École Pratique des Hauts Études, 2020. English. tel-03131936 HAL Id: tel-03131936 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03131936 Submitted on 4 Feb 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Préparée à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études Language Documentation and Standards in Digital Humanities: TEI and the documentation of Mixtepec-Mixtec Soutenue par Composition du jury : Jack BOWERS Guillaume, JACQUES le 8 octobre 2020 Directeur de Recherche, CNRS Président Alexis, MICHAUD Chargé de Recherche, CNRS Rapporteur École doctorale n° 472 Tomaž, ERJAVEC Senior Researcher, Jožef Stefan Institute Rapporteur École doctorale de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études Enrique, PALANCAR Directeur de Recherche, CNRS Examinateur Karlheinz, MOERTH Senior Researcher, Austrian Center for Digital Humanities Spécialité and Cultural Heritage Examinateur Linguistique Emmanuel, SCHANG Maître de Conférence, Université D’Orléans Examinateur Benoit, SAGOT Chargé de Recherche, Inria Examinateur Laurent, ROMARY Directeur de recherche, Inria Directeur de thèse 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Protestantism in Oaxaca, 1920-1995 Kathleen Mcintyre
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1-31-2013 Contested Spaces: Protestantism in Oaxaca, 1920-1995 Kathleen McIntyre Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation McIntyre, Kathleen. "Contested Spaces: Protestantism in Oaxaca, 1920-1995." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/ 54 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Kathleen Mary McIntyre Candidate Department of History Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Linda Hall, Chairperson Manuel García y Griego Elizabeth Hutchison Cynthia Radding Les W. Field i CONTESTED SPACES: PROTESTANTISM IN OAXACA, 1920-1995 by KATHLEEN MARY MCINTYRE B.A., History and Hispanic Studies, Vassar College, 2001 M.A., Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2012 ii DEDICATION To my mother, Cassie Tuohy McIntyre, for always believing in me. Many thanks. Do mo mháthair dhílis, Cassie Tuohy McIntyre, a chreid ionamsa ó thús. Míle buíochas. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It truly takes a pueblo to complete a dissertation. I am indebted to a long list of individuals and institutions in the United States and Mexico for supporting me throughout my investigation of religious conflict in Oaxaca.
    [Show full text]
  • Extra Harmonic Vowel in Chicahuaxtla Trique1
    Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 30 (2008), p. 205 Extra Harmonic Vowel in Chicahuaxtla Trique1 Kosuke Matsukawa State University of New York at Albany 1. Introduction Chicahuaxtla Trique is spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico and belongs to the Trique language group of the Mixtecan family of the Otomanguean stock. The Trique language group is composed of three languages (Chicahuaxtla Trique, Copala Trique and Itunyoso Trique) and each Trique language has undergone a series of historical sound changes (Matsukawa, 2005, 2006, 2007a, 2007b). In Chicahuaxtla Trique, an extra harmonic vowel is added after a laryngealized vowel (either a glottalized vowel or an aspirated vowel) in a final syllable. The extra harmonic vowel does not exist in Copala Trique or Itunyoso Trique and is attached mostly to noun stems in Chicahuaxtla Trique. However, the extra harmonic vowel disappears when a noun is possessed or when a word with the extra harmonic vowel is followed by another word. In this paper, I will discuss the phonological or morphological function of the extra harmonic vowel in Chicahuaxtla Trique and analyze whether the extra harmonic vowel can be reconstructed in Proto-Trique. 2. Extra harmonic vowel in Chicahuaxtla Trique2 Chicahuaxtla Trique has three types of vowels: short vowel (V), glottalized vowel (Vʔ) and aspirated vowel (Vh). Proto-Trique Chicahuaxtla Copala Itunyoso (1) *ne ne ne 3 ‘to sit’ (2) *nee ne nee ne ‘plow’ (3) *gãʔʔʔ gãʔʔʔ gãʔʔʔ kãʔʔʔ ‘far’ (4) *dah dah dah tah ‘how’ In Chicahuaxtla Trique and Itunyoso Trique, contrastive vowel length has been lost. Both oral and nasal vowels can be these three types of vowels, but laryngealized vowels occur only in a final syllable.
    [Show full text]
  • Fonética Y Fonología De Los Tonos Del Cuicateco De San Juan Tepeuxila the Phonetics and Phonology of Tone in San Juan Tepeuxila Cuicatec
    ISSN: 2007–736X Cuadernos de Lingüística de El Colegio de México 4(2), jul–dic 2017, pp. 83–136. ARTÍCULO Fonética y fonología de los tonos del cuicateco de San Juan Tepeuxila The phonetics and phonology of tone in San Juan Tepeuxila Cuicatec Marcela San Giacomo Trinidad Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México [email protected] Original recibido: 2016/02/22 Dictamen enviado al autor: 2016/05/24 Aceptado: 2017/05/03 Abstract In this article I present the first formal description of lexical tone contrasts in the Cuicatec language of San Juan Tepeuxila, Oaxaca. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to acoustic and phonological analysis, I propose a tone inventory at the syllable level. The work is based on recordings of isolated words –including many minimal pairs– that illustrate the oppositions of level and contour tones. Based on an instrumental analysis, I show significant differences that support the identification of four level tones, five contour tones (three rising and two falling) and three complex tones (two of them concave and one convex). Keywords: Cuicatec, Otomanguean, tones, phonetics, phonology Cómo citar: San Giacomo, Marcela. 2017. Fonética y fonología de los tonos del cuicateco de San Juan Tepeuxila. Cuadernos de Lingüística de El Colegio de México 4(2). pp. 83–136. 84 San Giacomo, M. 2017. Fonética y fonología de los tonos del cuicateco de San Juan Tepeuxila Resumen En este artículo presento la primera descripción formal de los contrastes tonales léxicos del cuicateco de San Juan Tepeuxila, Oaxaca. A partir de un acercamiento cualitativo y cuantitativo, realizo un análisis acústico y fonológico para proponer su inventario tonal a nivel silábico.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sounds of Triqui: Quantitative Approaches to Language Description and Its Ramifications for Historical Change
    The Sounds of Triqui: quantitative approaches to language description and its ramifications for historical change Christian DiCanio [email protected] Haskins Laboratories — University at Buffalo - Department of Linguistics http://www.haskins.yale.edu/staff/dicanio.html 11/7/14 Christian DiCanio (Haskins Labs & UB) Triqui quantitative and historical 11/7/14 1 With lots of practice, yes. Without it, no. Can your ears deceive you? Unfortunately, yes. Introduction What you say you hear vs. what you hear Can you trust your ears when studying an un-studied language? Christian DiCanio (Haskins Labs & UB) Triqui quantitative and historical 11/7/14 2 Without it, no. Can your ears deceive you? Unfortunately, yes. Introduction What you say you hear vs. what you hear Can you trust your ears when studying an un-studied language? With lots of practice, yes. Christian DiCanio (Haskins Labs & UB) Triqui quantitative and historical 11/7/14 2 Can your ears deceive you? Unfortunately, yes. Introduction What you say you hear vs. what you hear Can you trust your ears when studying an un-studied language? With lots of practice, yes. Without it, no. Christian DiCanio (Haskins Labs & UB) Triqui quantitative and historical 11/7/14 2 Introduction What you say you hear vs. what you hear Can you trust your ears when studying an un-studied language? With lots of practice, yes. Without it, no. Can your ears deceive you? Unfortunately, yes. Christian DiCanio (Haskins Labs & UB) Triqui quantitative and historical 11/7/14 2 Quantitative phonetic methods are crucial for accurate linguistic descriptions and for research in these languages.
    [Show full text]
  • And Topic Markers Indicate Gender and Number by Means of the Pronominal Article They Follow (Ho-Kwe M.TOP, Ko-Kwe F.TOP and Mo-Kwe PL-TOP)
    The elusive topic: Towards a typology of topic markers (with special reference to cumulation with number in Bolinao and gender in Nalca) Bernhard Wälchli (Stockholm University) [email protected] Helsinki; January 22, 2020 1 The elusive topic: Towards a typology of topic markers (with special reference to cumulation with number in Bolinao and gender in Nalca) Bernhard Wälchli (Stockholm University) Abstract At least since the 1970s, topic has been widely recognized to reflect an important category in most different approaches to linguistics. However, researchers have never agreed about what exactly a topic is (researchers disagree, for instance, about whether topics express backgrounding or foregrounding) and to what extent topics are elements of syntax or discourse or both. Topics are notoriously difficult to distinguish from a range of related phenomena. Some definitions of topic are suspiciously similar to definitions of definiteness, subject, noun and contrast, so the question arises as to what extent topic is a phenomenon of its own. However, topics are also internally diverse. There is disagreement, for instance, as to whether contrastive and non-contrastive topics should be subsumed under the same notion. This talk tries to approach the category type topic bottom-up by considering cross-linguistic functional diversity in marked topics, semasiologically defined as instances of topics with explicit segmental topic markers. The first part of the talk considers the question as to whether topic markers can be defined as a gram type with one or several prototypical functions that can be studied on the basis of material from parallel texts and from descriptive sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Prosodic Structure in Ixtayutla Mixtec: Evidence for the Foot
    Prosodic structure in Ixtayutla Mixtec: Evidence for the foot by Kevin L. Penner A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Alberta Examining committee: Dr. David Beck, Supervisor Dr. Anja Arnhold, Supervisory Committee Dr. Christian DiCanio, Supervisory Committee Dr. Stephanie Archer, Examiner Dr. Larry Hyman, External Examiner © Kevin L. Penner, 2019 Abstract Research on Mixtec languages (Otomanguean, Mexico), has long recognized a bimoraic/ bisyllabic “couplet” as an essential structure for the description of the phonology and morphology (e.g. Pike 1948; Josserand 1983); however, what exactly this structure is in terms of the struc- ture of the word, as well as the nature and extent of its influence in the grammar has not been adequately addressed. Most researchers have assumed that the couplet is the root, but this is prob- lematic since some synchronic roots are larger than a couplet, other couplets are multimorphemic and some couplets have a reduced form when not the stressed element in compounds. For a more adequate understanding of this structure, I turn to prosodic phonology where units of higher level phonological organization arranged in what is called the prosodic hierarchy form the domains for phonological patterns and provide the shapes of templates. Of particular relevance to the problem at hand is the foot, which is identified in the literature as a constituent between the syllable and the prosodic word in the prosodic hierarchy (Selkirk 1980a; Selkirk 1980b). Cross-linguistically, the foot is integrally connected to stress assignment, has a small inventory of basic shapes, plays an important templatic function in the synchronic and diachronic phonology of many languages and provides the domain for phonological rules and phonotactic generalizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Verbal Inflection in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec Enrique L
    Verbal inflection in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec Enrique L. Palancar, Jonathan Amith, Rey Castillo García To cite this version: Enrique L. Palancar, Jonathan Amith, Rey Castillo García. Verbal inflection in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec. 2015. hal-01099329 HAL Id: hal-01099329 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01099329 Preprint submitted on 2 Jan 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Verbal inflection in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec Enrique L. Palancar Jonathan D. Amith Rey Castillo García Accepted in Enrique L. Palancar & Jean-Léo Léonard (eds.), Tone and Inflection: New facts under new perspectives. Submitted to DeGruyter, Oct. 2014 1. Introduction Mixtec is a language family that together with Cuicatec and Triqui forms the Mixtecan branch of Oto-Manguean, a large and very diverse phylum of languages spoken in Mexico. In Mixtec languages, tone carries a significant functional load both in inflection and in derivation. For example, verbs in Mixtec languages have at least three main inflected forms: two aspects: incompletive (also called ‘habitual’, ‘continuative’, or even ‘present’) and completive (also called ‘past’) and one mood: irrealis (also called ‘potential’, or even ‘future’). It is particularly common for tone alone to distinguish the irrealis and the incompletive, though tone alone may also mark the completive.
    [Show full text]
  • Definiteness in Cuevas Mixtec Carlos Cisneros University of Chicago
    Chapter 2 Definiteness in Cuevas Mixtec Carlos Cisneros University of Chicago Languages vary widely in in their morpho-syntactic strategies for marking definite- ness within the noun phrase. Schwarz (2009; 2013) and Jenks (2015) find that these strategies often correspond to distinct characterizations of the semantics of definite descriptions. Many languages feature distinct mechanisms for expressing definite descriptions as either unique or familiar, such as by having two distinct classes of definite article or by contrasting definite bare nominals with some form ofovert definite marking. Cuevas Mixtec shows that a language can also feature internal variation in the marking of either uniqueness or familiarity. Most nominals of this language are capable of taking on bare forms for the expression of uniqueness, while familiarity is expressed using overt definite articles. There are some nom- inals, however, which never combine with overt definite articles or which must take on definite articles in a larger set of semantic environments. The variation observed here seems to be tied to etymological factors within the nominal and the influence of an animacy hierarchy. 1 Introduction Recent literature on the proper characterization of definiteness shows that lan- guages vary widely in the strategies they utilize for its expression, from bare nominals to the occurrence of definite articles or even demonstratives. Schwarz (2009) and Jenks (2015) show that when languages feature more than one strat- egy for the expression of definiteness, the variation exhibited semantically corre- sponds to distinct notions of definiteness itself. One class of definite expressions will encode uniqueness of an individual, such that the descriptive content con- veyed by the nominal can only be attributed to that individual.
    [Show full text]
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui Digital Wordlist and Preliminary Observations
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Vol. 6 (2012), pp. 208-236 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4509 Notes from the Field: Chicahuaxtla Triqui Digital Wordlist and Preliminary Observations A. Raymond Elliott The University of Texas at Arlington Fulgencio Sandoval Cruz Triqui language consultant, San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico Felipe Santiago Rojas Triqui language consultant, San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico. “En la cumbre de una alta montaña, y rodeada por todas partes de mixtecas, se encuentra Chicahuaztla, cabecera de parroquia, en la cual, así como en cuatro pueblos sujetos y en Copala, se habla un idioma extraño, el triqui, llamado así por la repeticion [sic] frecuente de ciertas consonantes (tr, pr, gr, etc.). ¿Los que lo hablan son mixtecas ó tienen otro origen? Se ignora; ni queda memoria siquiera de que antiguamente se hablase el triqui en la mixteca.”1 –José Antonio Gay, Historia de Oaxaca (1881:54) This article presents a 200-item list consisting of words and sample sentences from Chi- cahuaxtla Triqui, an Otomanguean language spoken in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. The wordlists include broad phonetic transcriptions, English glosses, Spanish cues, individual WAV recordings, and comments. Since the key to un- derstanding Chicahuaxtla Triqui lies in the ability to distinguish tone, the list is divided into two parts: 1) a section consisting of minimal pairs with contrastive phonemic tone and/or lexical items illustrating other interesting phonological characteristics, such as tone, fortis-lenis contrasts, prenasalized velars/pre-voicing, and velar onset nasals; and 2) lexical items that evidence tonal contours but may or may not operate contrastively in the language.
    [Show full text]