City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 The Incidence and Evolution of Palatalized Consonants in Latvian Linda Zalite Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1198 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] THE INCIDENCE AND EVOLUTION OF PALATALIZED CONSONANTS IN LATVIAN by LINDA ZALITE A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2015 © 2015 Linda Zalite All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Juliette Blevins Date Thesis Advisor Gita Martohardjono Date Executiv e Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract The Incidence and Evolution of Palatalized Consonants in Latvian by Linda Zalite Advisor: Professor Juliette Blevins This thesis traces the evolution of the palatalized rhotic /rj/ in Baltic languages with focus on the continuation of this segment in Latvian and its recent neutralization with /r/. Historical, phonological, phonetic, and synchronic data is gathered as evidence to further our understanding of the Latvian palatalized rhotic and its near-disappearance in the 20th century. Previous typological works of Endzelīns (1922, 1951), Dini (1997), Rūķe-Draviņa (1994) and Ābele (1929) were considered intending to answer three central questions.