THE PHONOLOGY OF SONORANTS IN BAVARIAN GERMAN Erin Noelliste Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Germanic Studies, Indiana University April 2017 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ______________________________________ Tracy Alan Hall, Ph.D. (chair) ______________________________________ Kari Gade, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Kenneth de Jong, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Susanne Even, Ph.D. March 2, 2017 ii To RN, June 2016 iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, thank you Tracy Hall for your never-ending wealth of knowledge and ideas of how to improve my writing. You introduced me to Germanic linguistics and have patiently taught me how to write academically over the last decade. For all of the ways you have shaped me as a scholar, I will forever be grateful. Special thanks go to Kari Gade, who is the top advocate for graduate students I have ever met. She has been ever supportive and encouraging throughout my graduate career, and I most definitely could not have completed this degree without her. Thanks also to Susanne Even for serving on this committee and teaching me so many lessons. From guidance in teaching to inclusion in collaborative workshop leading, Susanne has enhanced my educational and professional development in many ways. Thank you, Ken de Jong, for your phenomenal explanations of the field of phonetics which equipped me with the skills to collect and analyze these data. I also thank Dan Dinnsen for his vast teachings in theoretical linguistics and for his confidence in my academic pursuits. Thank you, Gergana May, for your encouragement to study abroad in Norway – an experience which developed me in so many ways in and outside of the classroom. A huge thank you goes to Jill Giffin, who always answers my many questions patiently and faithfully; the department could not run without you! For funding my research and writing, I thank the Department of Germanic Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, as well as the Max Kade Foundation and the DAAD. To all of my subjects who opened their homes and offered their time and friendship to help with this project, I thank you. Many friends and colleagues at Indiana University were an integral part of my graduate school experience, offering support as I completed this degree and dissertation. iv Andrew Kostakis, thank you for your steadfast encouragement and ever helpful advice about the degree, research projects, and all things life. Olivia Landry, I could never have come so far without your faithful friendship over the last nine years. Thank you for always being my go-to listener and venting partner. Many thanks go to others who generously offered their friendship and support throughout my graduate school years: Lane Sorensen, Jenn Strayer Sorensen, Franzi Krüger, Silja Weber, Kevin Seitz, Michael Bryant, Megan Barrett, Michael Eith, and Justin Glover. Thank you also to Mary Cauble and Lois Larsen, who have been wonderfully kind and understanding friends. Deepest thanks go to my family, particularly my mom Bonnita Laub, who has been my number one supporter always. I love you, Mom. Finally, thank you to my husband Joseph, who has been right there with me throughout this entire project. Thank you for uprooting everything and moving to Germany just for me and for supporting me through ALL the highs and lows. I treasure you. v Erin Noelliste THE PHONOLOGY OF SONORANTS IN BAVARIAN GERMAN In this dissertation, I investigate the phonological behavior of Bavarian German liquids, nasals, and vowels. These sounds undergo various changes, depending on the context, and I examine these changes in terms of features, which are determined via a contrastive hierarchy. This dissertation departs from traditional studies on German dialects, which are purely descriptive; the goal of this dissertation is to not only describe the facts from a particular dialect, but also to show how new data bear on theoretical issues in phonology. In chapter 2, I focus on demographics and methods, discussing my BG subjects and giving relevant information about the region and town in which they live. I also explain methodology of data collection and analysis. Chapter 3 presents the phonology and features of BG. I outline the underlying consonantal and vocalic segments of the dialect, providing data for contrasts and presenting distinctive features. The latter part of the chapter uses contrastive features to analyze several processes which interact with rules involving sonorant consonants. Chapter 4 focuses on BG nasals and opaque rule interactions which involve that class of sounds. I show that opacity in some data is created with a feeding rule order, as opposed to a counterbleeding order argued in most traditional accounts of opacity. I also show how the interaction of rules concerning nasals and dorsal fricative assimilation sheds light on the feature representations of dorsal fricatives. The focus of chapter 5 is on the liquids /l ʀ/. I give the distribution for liquids and show that in the coda, both liquids vocalize via a rule of Liquid Vocalization. I also discuss vi how Liquid Vocalization interacts with other processes in this dialect, including rules from previous chapters. In chapter 6, I discuss hiatus and its avoidance in BG, showing that BG employs several repairs for hiatus sequences, particularly Homorganic Glide Formation, Consonant Epenthesis, and Vowel Elision. I discuss BG R-Epenthesis and give data for other epenthetic consonants in BG, showing that consonant epenthesis in English and BG are not entirely the same. In chapter 7, I summarize the dissertation and suggest directions for future research. ______________________________________ Tracy Alan Hall, Ph.D. (chair) ______________________________________ Kari Gade, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Kenneth de Jong, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Susanne Even, Ph.D. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Goals.......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Feature Geometry ...................................................................................................... 3 1.3 The Contrastive Feature Hierarchy ........................................................................... 6 1.4 Opacity .................................................................................................................... 12 1.5 Liquid Vocalizations ............................................................................................... 16 1.6 Hiatus ...................................................................................................................... 18 1.7 Consonant Epenthesis and Markedness .................................................................. 20 1.8 Summary of the Dissertation ................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 2: DEMOGRAPHICS AND METHODS ..................................................................... 28 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 28 2.2 Demographics .......................................................................................................... 29 2.2.1 Bavarian German .............................................................................................. 29 2.2.2 Austrian Subjects .............................................................................................. 29 2.2.3 German Subjects ............................................................................................... 32 2.3 Pilot Studies............................................................................................................. 33 2.4 Year-Long Study ..................................................................................................... 34 2.4.1 Methods of Data Elicitation .............................................................................. 34 2.4.2 Methods of Data Analysis ................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER 3: RG PHONOLOGY AND FEATURES ................................................................... 41 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 41 3.2 RG Consonants ........................................................................................................ 42 3.2.1 RG Consonant Distribution .............................................................................. 42 3.2.2 Distinctive Features of RG Consonants............................................................ 50 3.3 RG Vowels .............................................................................................................. 53 3.3.1 RG Vowel Distribution ..................................................................................... 53 3.3.2 Distinctive Features of RG Vowels .................................................................. 58 3.3.3 RG Diphthongs ................................................................................................