Spanish epenthesis: Formal and performance perspectives

published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

A phonotatic explanation of the "vos" and final-r variety "vosotros"imperative

La forma “vos” del latín sobrevive en el español contemporáneo como “vosotros” en la península y como “voseo” en América. El morfema imperativo “-te” sobrevive en el lenguaje estándar como d. Sin embargo la forma imperativa del “voseo” ha borrado la -d por completo y una variedad de –r es común. El presente estudio intenta explicar la existencia de la “-r” final del morfema “vosotros” imperativo y la supresión del “voseo” como resultado de tres posibles influencias: -la anomalía de consonantes cerradas resultando de la -d final del verbo cuando se combine con consonantes iniciales de pronombres clíticos -la naturaleza inestable de la –d en final de palabra -la posible analogía del “vosotros” imperativo con el uso de infinitivos como imperativos no marcados y sin sujeto.The «VOS» form of Latin survives in contemporary Spanish as peninsular «vosotros» and American «voseo». The «VOS» imperative morpheme «-TE» survives in the standard language as /-d/. However, the imperative of the «voseo» form has deleted /-d/ altogether, and a final /-r/ variety imperative is common in Spain. The present study attempts to explain the existence of the final /-r/ morpheme «vosotros» imperative and the null morpheme imperative of «voseo» as the result of three possible influences: 1) the anomaly of the consonant clusters resulting from the final /-d/ of the imperative form of the verb when combined with the initial consonants of the clitic pronouns; 2) the unstable nature of /-d/ in word final position; 3) possible analogy of the «vosotros » imperative to the use of infinitives as unmarked, subjectless imperatives

Joselito and Calentito: diminutive enigmas

Two exceptional diminutives exist that have received little attention in the relevant literature. Joselito is unusual because it takes the suffix -lito, which may come from the /l/ in José Luís since the two are the most frequent collocates. The early appearance of Joselito, along with the fact that most of the other words that take -lito were later borrowings into Spanish, suggests that Joselito was the first diminutive of its kind. It then served as an analog for the diminutives of subsequent borrowings that ended in stressed vowels (e.g. cafelito, bebelito). The diminutive variant -tito (e.g. cafetito, sofatito) is also discussed. Calentito stands out because it does not retain the diphthong of its base, caliente, as most diminutives do. Historically, diminutives did not have diphthongs prior to the 15th century when they adopted them. In the early 20th century grammarians both prescribed and dispreferred monophthongal diminutives, but  in usage most monophthongal forms were eliminated with calentito emerging as the most common exception. However, contemporary corpus data attest the sporadic existence of other diminutives without diphthongs such as merendita and celito

A corpus study of grammatical differences between Uruguayan and Argentinian Spanish

This paper explores five grammatical features in Argentinian and Uruguayan Spanish using the Corpus del español. The goal is to find features that distinguish the speech of the two countries. The features studied are: (1) stress variation in 2nd person singular present subjunctive forms (e.g. téngas ~ tengás), (2) number agreement with había (e.g. habían ~ había muchos casos), (3) use of vos following prepositions (e.g. con vos ~ contigo), (4) use of present perfect versus preterite (e.g. recién he comido ~ comí), (5) use of the present or past subjunctive in embedded clauses preceded by a matrix clause containing a subjunctive trigger in the past tense (e.g. Nos mandaron que rellenáramos ~ rellenemos los papeles anoche). Statistical analyses were carried out on the proportion of each variant across the two countries, and significant differences were observed

An Experimental Verification of Some Cross-linguistic Sound Symbolisms

A recent investigation of 6452 languages (Blasi et al., 2016) uncovered a number of cross-linguistic correspondences between speech sounds and meaning. For example, the phone [z] was associated with the meaning ‘star.’ In the present study, 16 of these sound symbolisms were tested by presenting English and Spanish speakers with pairs of nonce words along with a definition of the words. Their task was to choose the word that sounded best with the meaning given. One member of the pair of words contained phones found to be associated with the meaning of the word while the other did not. For instance, participants were asked to choose between [zolz] and [folf] as the word they felt was most likely to mean ‘star. ‘ Seven of the sound and meaning correspondences observed in the study by Blasi et al. (2016) were corroborated by both Spanish and English speakers. Three additional sound correspondences were only significant in one of the experimental languages

Utah Dialect Regions and Features

Data from the Utah Dialect Survey were used to delineate dialect boundaries in the state of Utah. Statistical algorithms divided the state into rural and urban dialect zones. Twelve features were identified that distinguish the two dialects. Three additional features were extracted from the the Harvard Survey of North American Dialects. The idea that the rural vs. urban divide is related to a greater number of immigrants to urban areas is discounted. Many rural features coincide with those used more by older Utahns suggesting that rural areas maintain more conservative Utah characteristics

The psychological status of phonological analyses

This paper casts doubt on the psychological relevance of many phonological analyses. There are four reasons for this: 1) theoretical adequacy does not necessarily imply psychological significance; 2) most approaches are nonempirical in that they are not subject to potential spatiotemporal falsification; 3) phonological analyses are estab­ lished with little or no recourse to the speakers of the language via experimental psy­ chology; 4) the limited base of evidence which most analyses are founded on is further cause for skepticism

Fabrication and Operation of an Oxygen Insert for Adherent Cellular Cultures

Oxygen is a key modulator of many cellular pathways, but current devices permitting in vitro oxygen modulation fail to meet the needs of biomedical research. The hypoxic chamber offers a simple system to control oxygenation in standard culture vessels, but lacks precise temporal and spatial control over the oxygen concentration at the cell surface, preventing its application in studying a variety of physiological phenomena. Other systems have improved upon the hypoxic chamber, but require specialized knowledge and equipment for their operation, making them intimidating for the average researcher. A microfabricated insert for multiwell plates has been developed to more effectively control the temporal and spatial oxygen concentration to better model physiological phenomena found in vivo . The platform consists of a polydimethylsiloxane insert that nests into a standard multiwell plate and serves as a passive microfluidic gas network with a gas-permeable membrane aimed to modulate oxygen delivery to adherent cells. The device is simple to use and is connected to gas cylinders that provide the pressure to introduce the desired oxygen concentration into the platform. Fabrication involves a combination of standard SU-8 photolithography, replica molding, and defined PDMS spinning on a silicon wafer. The components of the device are bonded after surface treatment using a hand-held plasma system. Validation is accomplished with a planar fluorescent oxygen sensor. Equilibration time is on the order of minutes and a wide variety of oxygen profiles can be attained based on the device design, such as the cyclic profile achieved in this study, and even oxygen gradients to mimic those found in vivo . The device can be sterilized for cell culture using common methods without loss of function. The device's applicability to studying the in vitro wound healing response will be demonstrated

Time-Dependent Models for Dark Matter at the Galactic Center

The prospects of indirect detection of dark matter at the galactic center depend sensitively on the mass profile within the inner parsec. We calculate the distribution of dark matter on sub-parsec scales by integrating the time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation, including the effects of self-annihilations, scattering of dark matter particles by stars, and capture in the supermassive black hole. We consider a variety of initial dark matter distributions, including models with very high densities ("spikes") near the black hole, and models with "adiabatic compression" of the baryons. The annihilation signal after 10 Gyr is found to be substantially reduced from its initial value, but in dark matter models with an initial spike, order-of-magnitude enhancements can persist compared with the rate in spike-free models, with important implications for indirect dark matter searches with GLAST and Air Cherenkov Telescopes like HESS and CANGAROO.Comment: Four page

Microfluidic device for drug delivery

A microfluidic device is provided for delivering a drug to an individual. The microfluidic device includes a body that defines a reservoir for receiving the drug therein. A valve interconnects the reservoir to an output needle that is insertable into the skin of an individual. A pressure source urges the drug from the reservoir toward the needle. The valve is movable between a closed position preventing the flow of the drug from the reservoir to the output needle and an open position allowing for the flow of the drug from the reservoir to the output needle in response to a predetermined condition in the physiological fluids of the individual