UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Deriving Natural Classes: The Phonology and Typology of Post-velar Consonants Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50v3m3g6 Author Sylak-Glassman, John Publication Date 2014 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Deriving Natural Classes: The Phonology and Typology of Post-Velar Consonants by John Christopher Sylak-Glassman A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair Professor Andrew Garrett Professor Keith Johnson Professor Darya Kavitskaya Spring 2014 Deriving Natural Classes: The Phonology and Typology of Post-Velar Consonants Copyright 2014 by John Christopher Sylak-Glassman 1 Abstract Deriving Natural Classes: The Phonology and Typology of Post-Velar Consonants by John Christopher Sylak-Glassman Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair In this dissertation, I propose a new method of deriving natural classes that is motivated by the phonological patterning of post-velar consonants (uvulars, pharyngeals, epiglottals, and glot- tals). These data come from a survey of the phonemic inventories, phonological processes, and distributional constraints in 291 languages. The post-velar consonants have been claimed to constitute an innate natural class, the gutturals (McCarthy 1994). However, no single phonetic property has been shown to characterize every post-velar consonant. Using data from P-base (Mielke 2008), I show that the phonological pat- terning of the post-velar consonants is conditioned by the presence of a pharyngeal consonant, and argue more generally that natural classes can be derived from phonetic connections that link spe- cific subsets of phonemes. Phonological entailments (Burzio 2002a,b; Wayment 2009) are used to model these connections. Entailments are derived from the co-occurrence of features within a single phoneme, and state that if one element of representation (p) is present, then so is another (q). Entailments are central to deriving natural classes, and function as a source of explanation for why phonemes are able to pattern together. Because natural classes are proposed to be derived rather than representationally specified, I propose that formal representations are responsible for capturing phonemic contrast and pho- netic detail that is essential for accurately describing phonological processes and distributional constraints. Following this proposal, I present a new formal representation of the post-velar con- sonants. Traditional phonological features are associated with the phoneme itself and are moti- vated by the phonemic contrasts discovered through the typological survey. In addition, phonetic subfeatures are associated with language-specific allophones of phonemes and are motivated by phonological processes that are influenced by non-contrastive phonetic properties. Natural classes are derived as feature classes (symbolized Â; Padgett 1995, 2002), which are sets of feature bundles combined in a union relationship. Their composition is derived using a new type of Optimality Theory constraint, ASSOCIATE(Âi, p $ q), which uses entailments to require the feature bundles represented by p and q to be present in a feature class, Âi. I argue that the entailments in these constraints establish a surface correspondence relationship between the feature bundles that they require to be present, and that regulating this correspondence relationship 2 is key to determining the composition of feature classes within a language. MAX-FFÂ requires feature bundles to be in correspondence, which eliminates feature bundles that are not required by ASSOCIATE constraints. DEP-FFÂ militates against feature bundles being in correspondence, and its ranking with respect to the ASSOCIATE constraints determines which feature bundles are included in a feature class. The feature bundles required by ASSOCIATE constraints ranked above DEP-FFÂ are included in a feature class, while those that are required by ASSOCIATE constraints ranked below DEP-FFÂ are not. The dissertation concludes by demonstrating that this proposed system can derive natural classes composed of post-velar consonants, including the guttural natural class in Arabic. i To my aunt, Dr. Mary Diane Lazar ii Contents Contents ii List of Figures vi List of Tables vii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Problem: Deriving Phonological Classes and Defining Naturalness . 1 1.2 Post-Velar Consonants and the Guttural Natural Class . 3 1.3 Deriving Natural Classes Based on Phonetic Connections Between Phonemes . 4 1.4 Overview . 5 2 Cross-Linguistic Distribution of Post-Velar Consonants 8 2.1 Introduction . 8 2.2 Geographic Clusters of Languages with Post-Velar Consonants . 8 2.2.1 The Middle East and North Africa . 10 2.2.2 Greater Abyssinia to the Tanzanian Rift Valley . 14 2.2.3 The Kalahari Basin . 18 2.2.4 The Caucasus . 21 2.2.5 Iranian Plateau . 28 2.2.6 Taiwan . 30 2.2.7 Southwestern Siberia . 32 2.2.8 The Pacific North Coast of Asia . 33 2.2.9 The Pacific Northwest Coast of North America . 36 2.2.10 The Andes . 42 2.2.11 The Gran Chaco . 45 2.2.12 Other Languages or Stocks Known to Contain Post-Velar Consonants . 46 2.3 Survey Results . 48 2.3.1 Counts . 48 2.3.2 Attested Post-Velar Consonants . 49 2.3.2.1 Other Very Rare Post-Velar Consonants . 54 2.4 Areal Patterns . 54 iii 2.4.1 Areas in Which Post-Velars Are Uncommon . 54 2.4.2 Correlations with Spread Zones and Residual Zones . 56 2.5 Summary and Conclusions . 58 3 Phonological Patterns Involving Post-Velar Consonants 60 3.1 Local Effects on Vowels . 60 3.1.1 Non-Neutralizing Lowering . 61 3.1.2 Neutralizing Lowering . 65 3.1.3 Vowel Backing . 69 3.1.4 Vowel Fronting and Palatalization . 70 3.1.5 Vocalic Offglides from Pharyngeal/Epiglottal Consonants . 73 3.1.6 Laryngealization or Creakiness . 74 3.1.7 Pitch (F0) Effects . 75 3.2 Post-Velar Harmonies . 75 3.2.1 Azerbaijani Jewish Aramaic (Semitic) Emphasis Harmony . 76 3.2.2 Cairene and San‘ani Arabic Emphasis Spread . 77 3.2.3 Tashlhiyt Emphasis Spread . 80 3.2.4 Interior Salish . 80 3.2.4.1 Regressive Faucal Retraction Harmony . 81 3.2.4.2 Progressive Retraction Harmony . 82 3.2.5 Tsilhqot’in . 83 3.2.5.1 Progressive S-flatteningˆ . 85 3.2.5.2 Regressive S-flatteningˆ . 85 3.2.5.3 Progressive Q-flattening . 85 3.2.5.4 Regressive Q-flattening . 86 3.2.5.5 Sibilant Pharyngealization Agreement . 86 3.2.5.6 Summary of Tsilhqot’in Flattening Processes . 86 3.2.6 Rutul Pharyngealization Harmony . 87 3.2.7 Archi Pharyngealization Spreading . 88 3.2.8 Morphologically-Restricted Vocalic Pharyngealization Harmony in Icari Dargwa . 89 3.2.9 Summary of the Surveyed Post-Velar Harmony Processes . 91 3.3 Other Processes . 92 3.3.1 Co-occurrence Restrictions . 93 3.3.2 Guttural Transparency . 95 3.3.3 Post-Velar Degemination . 98 3.3.4 Deletion in Final Position of a Prosodic Constituent . 98 3.3.5 Positional Contrast Neutralization . 99 3.4 Conclusion . 99 4 The Featural Representation of Post-Velar Consonants 102 4.1 Introduction . 102 iv 4.2 Phonological Features: A Historical Overview . 103 4.2.1 Foundations of Research into Phonological Features . 103 4.2.2 The Focal Shift From Representations to Derivations . 105 4.2.3 The Importance of Featural Representations . 107 4.3 Previous Proposals on the Featural Representation of Post-Velar Consonants . 109 4.3.1 Earliest Proposals . 109 4.3.1.1 Jakobson, Fant, and Halle 1952 . 109 4.3.1.2 Chomsky and Halle 1968 . 111 4.3.1.3 Ladefoged 1971 . 113 4.3.2 Feature Geometry . 115 4.3.2.1 Brief Overview of the Framework . 115 4.3.2.2 Czaykowska-Higgins 1987 . 117 4.3.2.3 Hayward and Hayward 1989, McCarthy 1991 & 1994 . 119 4.3.2.4 Bessell 1992 . 121 4.3.2.5 Rose 1996 . 122 4.4 New Proposal for the Phonological Feature Representation of Post-Velar Consonants124 4.4.1 Maximal and Attested Contrasts . 127 4.4.1.1 Place of Articulation . 127 4.4.1.2 Secondary Articulations . 128 4.4.1.3 Phonation Type . 129 4.4.1.4 Manner of Articulation . 130 4.4.1.5 Summary of Maximal and Attested Contrasts Among Post-Velar Consonants . 131 4.4.2 Phonological Features of Post-Velar Consonants . 132 4.4.2.1 Place of Articulation . 132 4.4.2.2 Secondary Articulations . 138 4.4.2.3 Phonation Type . 139 4.4.2.4 Manner of Articulation . 140 4.4.2.5 Featural Specifications for All Post-Velar Consonant Phonemes . 140 4.4.3 Phonetic Subfeatures of Post-Velar Consonants . 142 4.5 Summary and Conclusions . 145 5 Phonological Classes 147 5.1 Introduction . 147 5.2 Working Definitions of Types of Phonological Classes . 148 5.3 Previous Theoretical Conceptions of Phonological Classes . 150 5.3.1 Feature Sets . 150 5.3.2 Feature Geometry . 150 5.3.3 Feature Class Theory . 156 5.3.4 Emergent Feature Theory . 156 5.3.5 Flemming 2005: Deriving Natural Classes via Constraint Interaction . 157 5.4 Deriving Phonological Classes . 159 v 5.4.1 Phonologically Active Unnatural Classes . 159 5.4.2 Phonologically Active Natural Classes . 160 5.4.2.1 Entailments . ..