Vocale Incerta, Vocale Aperta

url for Conference program.Ogni toscano si comporta di fronte a una parola a lui nuova, come si nota p. es. nella lettura del latino, scegliendo costantamente, e inconsciamente, il timbro aperto, secondo il principio che il Migliorini ha condensato nella formula «vocale incerta, vocale aperta»…è il processo a cui vien sottoposto ogni vocabolo importato o adattato da altri linguaggi. (Franceschi 1965:1-3

Notes on Syllable Structure in Three Arabic Dialects

Cet article examine quelques alternances très productives dans trois dialectes de l’arabe moderne : levantin, bani-hassan (bédouin) et soudanais. La première partie de l’article élabore une distinction entre « syllabes de base » (CV, CVV, CVC) et « syllabes marginales » (CVCC, CVVC). Il est suggéré que les syllabes de base sont érigées dans la phonologie lexicale alors que les syllabes maginales sont construites dans la composante postlexicale. La deuxième partie de l’article propose une analyse de wasla (« l’enjambement »). Nous démontrons, en outre, que le fait d’établir une distinction entre le niveau segmental et le niveau du squelette permet d’expliquer plusieurs aspects de ce phénomène.This paper examines a number of pervasive syllable-based alternations in three modern Arabic dialects: Levantine, Bani-Hassan (Bedouin) and Sudanese. The first part develops a distinction between core (CV, CVV, CVC) and marginal (CVCC, CVVC) syllables. It is argued that core syllables are constructed in the lexical phonology while marginal syllables are built postlexically. The second part of the paper develops an analysis of wasla ("joining"). It is shown how drawing a distinction between the segmental and skeletal tiers helps to explain several properties of this otherwise puzzling phenomenon

Loanword Phonology and Enhancement

With the development of a “constraints and repair” approach to phonological computation, the field has seen a renewed interest in loanword adaptation. The task of the adapter is to make the loan conform to the segmental, phonotactic, and prosodic structure of the recipient (L1) language while preserving as much information as possible from the donor (L2) language. The balance between these often conflicting demands is insightfully expressed by a constraint-based model of phonology such as Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004) with its key notions of markedness and faithfulness constraints

Cantonese Loanwords : Conflicting Faithfulness in VC Rime Constraints

This paper focuses on the ways in which English loanwords are brought into line with four phonotactic constraints that restrict the possible combinations of nuclear vowels and coda consonants in Cantonese Chinese. It is found that three of the four constraints are strictly enforced in loans. Repairs change either the vowel or the coda consonant. Parallel to Mandarin, changes in vowel height features ([high], [ATR]) as opposed to changes in vowel backness are employed. Coda consonant changes obey a dorsal > coronal > labial faithfulness hierarchy that mirrors the typology of coda mergers discovered by Chen (1973) for many Chinese dialects. While changes in both the vowel and coda consonant occur, on-line adaptations favor changing the coda and preserving the vowel and suggest that the relative phonetic salience of the nuclear vowel to the coda consonant still plays a role in these adaptations.Aquest article se centra en la manera com els anglicismes del xinès cantonès conflueixen en l'adaptació a través de quatre condicions fonotàctiques que restringeixen les combinacions possibles de vocals i de consonants a la rima. Tres d'aquestes quatre condicions són estrictament inevitables. L'arranjament fa canviar la vocal del nucli o la consonant de la coda. Tal com passa en mandarí, s'utilitzen canvis en els trets d'altura de les vocals ([alt], [AA]) com a oposició als canvis en el tret de posterioritat. Els canvis en les consonants de la coda obeeixen una jerarquia de fidelitat dorsal > coronal > labial que reflecteix la tipologia de reducció o simplificació de codes descoberta per Chen (1973) per a molts dialectes xinesos. Encara que es produeixin canvis en la vocal i en la consonant de la coda, les adaptacions directes afavoreixen els canvis en la coda però no en la vocal. Això suggereix que la prominència relativa de la vocal del nucli respecte a la consonant de la coda encara juga un paper important en aquestes adaptacions

Pretonic Vowel Reduction In Brazilian Portuguese: Harmony And Dispersion

This paper follows up on some of the phonetic assumptions underlying earlier discussions in the phonological literature of the vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese such as Crosswhite (2004) and Flemming (2004), among others. We investigated various reflexes of prosodic prominence across four positions: tonic, pretonic, posttonic, and word-final. The height of the low vowel /a/ in these contexts was also determined. We found that while duration readily distinguished among the first three positions (tonic > pretonic > posttonic), it failed to differentiate posttonic from final. Intensity was a better discriminator across all four positions. We also documented a height harmony between pretonic mid vowels and the following tonic resulting in a seven-vowel pretonic inventory that parallels the tonic*. The implications of these findings for metrical prominence and dispersion accounts of vowel reduction are considered.1

Pitch Accent in Korean

Typologically, pitch-accent languages stand between stress languages like Spanish and tone languages like Shona, and share properties of both. In a stress language typically just one syllable per word is accented and bears the major stress (cf. Spanish sábana ‘sheet’, sabána ‘plain’, Panamá). In a tone language the number of distinctions grows geometrically with the size of the word. So in Shona, which contrasts high vs. low tone, trisyllabic words have eight possible pitch patterns. In a canonical pitch-accent language such as Japanese, just one syllable (or mora) per word is singled out as distinctive, as in Spanish. But each syllable in the word is assigned a high or low tone (as in Shona); however, this assignment is predictable based on the location of the accented syllableKeywords: tonal accent, diachrony, phonetic realization, compounds, phonological phrases, loanwords, frequency, reconstructio