Linear lengthening in Iwaidja : an event-quantifying intonation at the phonology to semantics/pragmatics interface

This paper investigates the meaning of a specific intonation contour called linear lengthening intonation (LLI), which is found in the northern Australian language Iwaidja. Using an experimental field work approach, we analysed approximately 4000 utterances. We demonstrate that the semantics of LLI is broadly event-quantificational as well as temporally scalar. LLI imposes aspectual selectional restrictions on the verbs it combines with (they must be durative, i.e., cannot describe ‘punctual’, atomic events), and requires the event description effected by said verbs to exceed a contextually determined relative scalar meaning. Iwaidja differs from other northern Australian languages with similar intonation patterns in that it does not seem to have any argument NP-related incremental or event scalar meaning. This suggests that LLI is a decidedly grammatical, language-specific device and not a purely iconic kind of expression (even though it also possibly has an iconic dimension)

Rhotic contrasts in Arabana

Arabana has a three-way rhotic phoneme contrast: /r/ (alveolar trill) vs /ɾ/ (alveolar tap) vs /ɻ/ (retroflex continuant). The rhotic contrasts are prosodically restricted in Arabana. The triple contrast only appears following the tonic vowel, which is the first vowel. In other onset positions /ɻ/ is contrastive, but there is no /r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast. There is no contrast in coda positions. We undertook the first-ever production study of Arabana rhotics. Recorded audio materials were independently coded in PRAAT by two trained transcribers. We found the following allophony: /r/ [r, ɾ, ɹ]; /ɾ/ [ɾ, ɹ], /ɻ/ [ɻ]. The /r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast is thus negatively determined, /r/ permits [r] realizations, but /ɾ/ does not. The commonest realization of both /r/ and /ɾ/ is [ɹ]. The phoneme in neutralized coda position is /r/. The high degree of overlap in realizations between /r/ and /ɾ/ accords with reported perception difficulties

Thoughts on the genesis and the development of syllable cut in English

Since its renaissance in a series of papers by Theo Vennemann, the concept of syllable cut has been applied to a variety of both synchronic and diachronic problems, especially in the Germanic languages. Further investigation has been able to clarify the phonetic realisation of syllable cut, and has also explored different typological manifestations. However, although this phonological concept has been particularly successful in explaining the motivation behind sound changes in the history of English and German, the questions of how and why syllable cut originated have so far only been touched upon. This paper investigates the genesis and the development of syllable cut in English. It is argued that due to phonological developments in Old English it was possible to generalise the structural and segmental properties of syllables with geminate consonants to all closed syllables with short vowels. This is supported by a quantitative pilot study, which shows that Old English actually possessed a considerable amount of words with geminates, which could have formed a basis for the proposed generalisation. Comparative evidence from Latin and German renders further support for this assumption

Donka Minkova. A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced

A book review of A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced

The prehistory of European languages

This chapter deals with the prehistory of the European languages from the earliest arrival of modern humans in the late Stone Age until the dawn of history, marked by the attestation of written records in Europe from the second millennium BC onwards (see Appendix for a timeline). Its aim is to give an overview of the main developments and to point out the main results of recent research as well as to report on current discussions. One central topic will be language contact during the period of the Neolithic until the beginning of the Iron Age, in particular the impact of substrate languages on the Indo-European languages and the Indo-European superstrate in the Uralic languages. This chapter is structured as follows: Section two deals with Europe before the Neolithic period. In section three the Neolithic population movements are addressed in connection with the process of agriculturalization and the languages that entered Europe during this time. Section four discusses the linguistic effects of the Neolithic developments, focusing in particular on the Vasconic Theory by Theo Vennemann. The final section presents the linguistic map of Europe before the arrival of the Iron Age and sums up the most important results

Einführung in die Phonetik und Phonologie des Deutschen, by Thomas Becker, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2012.

As clearly stated in the introduction of this book, it is an introductory textbook aimed at students of German, specifically at students who are not set out to be linguists. It wants to get across the essentials, the basics of the sound structure of German (p. 7). However, the introduction also mentions that this book is suited for linguists and also for university teachers, as the presentation of the content “weicht…in einigen Punkten von den üblichen Darstellungen ab” [deviates at several points from more usual presentations]. Book review. The aim of this book is to show that “die Lautstrukturen des Deutschen einfacher sind, als sie üblicherweise gesehen und dargestellt werden” [the phonological structures of German are simpler as they are usually seen and portrayed]. I show that both of these statements make this book unique and almost revolutionary among modern textbooks

Place names as clues to lost languages? : a comparison between Europe and Australia

It is common knowledge in historical linguistics that place names can conserve elements of languages that have vanished without leaving traces elsewhere. Thus, they can ‘permit historical inferences about languages and the people who spoke them’ (Campbell 2013: 436) for a given area. This strategy has been applied successfully in many cases, e.g. Scandinavian place names of England, which bear testimony to the existence of speakers of Old Norse, as their linguistic material can be related to Old Norse appellatives and place name elements (see Campbell 2013: 436-437 for a brief overview)

Ablaut variation in the proto-Germanic noun : the long arm of the strong verbs

One of the hallmarks of the Germanic languages is the functional and systemic dominance of ablaut in the system of the strong verbs. However, it is apparent that ablaut does not occupy such a position of supremacy in other parts of Proto-Germanic morphology, which is remarkable, given the degree of morphological restructuring that is visible in the Germanic strong verbs. This contribution examines the formal properties and the functional role of ablaut in the morphology of the Proto-Germanic noun. In inflectional morphology the role ablaut plays reflects the situation of the parent language. However, it has gone virtually unnoticed that the amount of ablaut grades that cannot be explained from the viewpoint of Indo-European word formation is considerable. This paper draws attention to the fact that the vast majority of these secondary ablaut grades are found in derivatives from strong verbs, whereas primary nouns or nouns derived from weak verbs and other nominals usually show regular ablaut grades. It is shown that there is a clear correlation between the occurrence of irregular ablaut grades and the ablaut grades available in the paradigms of the strong verbs used as derivational bases. The conclusion that will be drawn is that one of the factors contributing to the proliferation of different ablaut grades are the various ways in which the paradigmatic ablaut grades of strong verbs can be reanalysed categorially as bases for derivations, for which the term systemic analogy is proposed. In this way, the dominance of ablaut in the system of the strong verbs extends into the nominal morphology of Proto-Germanic

Amurdak intersyllabic phonotactics and morphophonemic alternations as motivated by the Contact Law

This contribution examines the intersyllabic phonotactics and morphophonemic alternations of the northern Australian language Amurdak. It argues that they are motivated by the preferences formulated in the Contact Law (Vennemann 1988). Amurdak goes beyond the general tendency of Australian languages to have word-medial clusters that conform to the Contact Law (Baker 2014, Hamilton 1996). Moreover, diachronic patterns of morphophonemic alternations find a natural explanation if the Contact Law as a constraint is assumed (see Baker 2014). What is interesting, however, is how the Contact Law is implemented, because processes of fortition go against the preferences of the Strength Assimilation Law. It is suggested that the fact that these changes occur exclusively at morpheme boundaries may be an important factor in the history of Amurdak phonotactics and morphophonemics

Some answers and more puzzles : newly discovered modal categories and the history of the Iwaidjan verb system

The aim of this paper is to integrate newly discovered modal categories and their respective paradigms in Amurdak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language belonging to the Iwaidjan language family, within the verb system of Amurdak and with a partial historical reconstruction of the verb system of Proto-Iwaidjan. The key challenge is to account for the heavy innovation of Amurdak in the area of modal categories, on the foundations of inherited material. In a first pass at this problem this paper will first provide a morphological analysis of the new data and then link them comparatively to other Iwaidjan languages, pointing out anchor points as well as current problems. The main point the paper wants to make is that, although Amurdak displays striking innovations with respect to other Iwaidjan languages – especially some of the categories presented here -, there are substantial links, which put Amurdak closer to the core of the Iwaidjan language family than previously assumed. There are at least three major connections between language documentation and linguistic theory that this paper highlights