THE PROSODIC STRUCTURE OF IRISH, SCOTS GAELIC, AND MANX A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School © 1997 Antony Dubach Green of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Antony Dubach Green May 1997 THE PROSODIC STRUCTURE OF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH IRISH, SCOTS GAELIC, AND MANX Antony Dubach Green, Ph.D. Antony Dubach Green was born on July 7, 1968, in Santa Barbara, Cali- Cornell University 1997 fornia, to Douglass M. Green and Marquita Dubach. He received a Bache- lor of Arts in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin, with a double This dissertation is an examination of the prosodic structure of the closely major in linguistics and classics. In 1991 he received a Master of Arts in related Goidelic languages: Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx. Several impor- linguistics from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1997 tant claims about the prosodic hierarchy are made, using facts of stress he received a Doctor of Philosophy in linguistics from Cornell University placement, weight-to-stress effects, and syllabification. Evidence from in Ithaca, New York. non-Goidelic languages is brought to bear as well. The approach is both synchronic and diachronic; the theoretical un- derpinnings are those of prosodic phonology and Optimality Theory. A theory of how phonological change is to be captured in an Optimality Theoretic framework is presented: it is argued that a phonological change happens when a constraint against a marked phonological pattern is pro- moted above other constraints. Further, it is shown that paradigm leveling can be accounted for within OT by means of faithfulness constraints gov- erning related output forms. The continuing role of the Weight-to-Stress Principle (WSP) in the history of the Goidelic languages is examined. It is shown that the WSP has had a recurring effect on the prosodic development of Old Irish from Proto-Insular Celtic and on the evolution of Old Irish into Middle and Early Modern Irish, and thence to the modern Goidelic languages. It is further argued that a prosodic constituent called the colon must be included in the prosodic hierarchy between the prosodic word and the foot, with evidence from both Goidelic and non-Goidelic languages that certain facts of stress and prosodic size cannot be explained adequately without reference to the colon. In particular, it is shown that the so-called “forward stress” pattern of Munster Irish, East Mayo Irish, and Manx are most insightfully explained with the colon. Finally, syllabification of consonants and consonant clusters is re- viewed, with an argument that a requirement that stressed short vowels be in close contact with a consonant results in ambisyllabicity in Irish. The syllabification of rising-sonority consonant clusters is examined, and it is shown that shallower rises in sonority are permitted only at higher levels on the prosodic hierarchy; also examined is epenthesis in Irish and Scots Gaelic into clusters of falling sonority. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to my committee members. Draga Zec was generous with her time and advice and diligently guided me through the writing of all stages of this dissertation; further, she never failed to point me in the direction of further references for me to read—something for which I may not have always been grateful at the time, but I am now. Jay Jasanoff, my first advisor, taught me literally everything I know about Indo-European, Old Irish, and the theory of historical linguistics. Abby Cohn was always ready to discuss the theoretical implications of my ideas, and, of course, to give me one more thing to read. Máire Ní Chiosáin has been especially helpful, not only in discuss- ing theoretical aspects of Irish phonology, but also in giving me practice in reading Irish by sending me e-mail messages I needed a dictionary to in- terpret. She was also generous with intuitions about her native language: the judgments on syllabification in chapter 5 are hers, but she freely ac- knowledges that other speakers may get other judgments. She bears no re- sponsibility if her judgments turn out to represent a minority view among native speakers of Irish. To my parents I also thank Wayne Harbert for discussions on anything and every- thing related to the Celtic languages, and Wayles Browne, Bill Ham, Bruce Hayes, Sharon Inkelas, David Odden, Diarmuid Ó Sé, Jaye Padgett, David Parkinson, Frederick Parkinson, and Marek Przezdziecki for their helpful suggestions. If any inaccuracies or lapses in judgment remain, no blame can be attached to any of these people. For love and support, I thank all my friends from Cornell and else- where (I would list their names, but I wouldn’t know where to stop, so let me just say you know who you are); my parents Douglass Green and Mar- quita Dubach, my sisters Jessica Salinas and Marcia Santore, my brothers- in-law Luis Salinas and Jonathan Santore, and my nephews Gerard and Martin Salinas. Thanks also to my teachers and classmates at Oideas Gael in Glencolmcille. Thanks to Conor Devane for Munster Irish forms. And finally, most grateful acknowledgment is due to Mārjārā, who always knew when it was time for me to stop writing and feed her instead. Go raibh míle maith agaibh uile! vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 3: Stress in Goidelic and the role of the Weight-to-Stress Principle.......................................................................................................58 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................1 3.1 Quantitative and accentual consequences of WSP and 1.1 General introduction .................................................................1 Grouping Harmony .................................................................58 1.2 Optimality Theory.....................................................................4 3.1.1 Fijian .............................................................................61 1.3 Representing phonological change in Optimality Theory......11 3.1.2 Yana ..............................................................................62 1.3.1 The Promotion of the Unmarked ..................................12 3.2 The metrical structure of the Goidelic languages...................64 1.3.2 Building new inputs: Insular Celtic..............................15 3.3 From Proto-Insular Celtic to Early Modern Irish ...................67 1.3.3 Re-solving problems: Modern English.........................17 3.3.1 Shortening of unstressed long vowels in Proto- 1.3.4 A previous analysis of constraint reranking.................20 Goidelic.........................................................................67 1.4 Paradigm leveling and output–output correspondences.........24 3.3.2 New noninitial long vowels: WSP violation in Early 1.5 Assumptions about foot and syllable structure.......................29 Modern Irish..................................................................69 1.6 Sources ....................................................................................30 3.3.3 Lengthening of monomoraic words in Old Irish..........71 1.7 Transcription ...........................................................................32 3.4 The modern Goidelic languages .............................................73 1.8 Summary .................................................................................33 3.4.1 WSP ≫ MAX(µ) in Ulster and Gaelic .........................73 1.9 Overview of the dissertation...................................................33 3.4.1.1 Ulster shortening of unstressed long vowels .74 Chapter 2: Introduction to the Goidelic languages.....................................35 3.4.1.2 Variation in OT: Ulster trochaic shortening ..75 2.1 Position of Goidelic in Indo-European...................................35 3.4.1.3 Gaelic shortening............................................79 2.2 Dialects of Irish and Scots Gaelic...........................................36 3.4.2 WSP ≫ ALL-FT-L in Munster, East Mayo and Manx.81 2.3 Sound inventories....................................................................39 3.4.2.1 Munster stress shift.........................................81 2.3.1 Old Irish ........................................................................39 3.4.2.2 East Mayo stress shift.....................................86 2.3.2 Modern Irish (Lárchanúint) ..........................................41 3.4.2.3 Manx shortening and stress shift....................90 2.3.3 The spoken dialects of Irish..........................................43 3.4.3 Retention of MAX(µ) ≫ WSP in Connacht .................93 2.3.4 Gaelic ............................................................................44 3.5 Conclusions.............................................................................95 2.3.5 Manx .............................................................................45 Chapter 4: Forward stress in Goidelic and the role of the prosodic 2.3.6 A note on nasalized vowels ..........................................45 colon ...........................................................................................................98 2.4 Initial consonant mutations.....................................................46 4.1 Introduction to the colon.........................................................98 2.4.1 Old Irish ........................................................................48 4.2 The colon and tertiary stress .................................................102