Early bilingualism as a source of morphonological rules for the adaptation of loanwords: Spanish loanwords in Basque

Obra colectiva editada por Andrea Calabrese y W. Leo Wetzels. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory ; 307[EN] The present socio-cultural situation in the Basque speaking area of Spain offers a privileged field for the study of Spanish loanwords in Basque, due to the more expanded use of Basque, together with a better knowledge of Spanish among Basque speakers. Within the theoretical framework of Natural Phonology, this paper explores some phonological and lato sensu morphological mechanisms that take part in the integration of Spanish loanwords into Basque. First it deals with the mutual influence between Spanish and Basque when both are first languages for the speaker. Early bilingualism only causes the loss of Basque processes that are suppressed in Spanish, but those processes need not be completely lost. There is clear evidence that continued collective bilingualism and need of translation motivate the transformation of denaturalised phonological substitutions into morphological devices for the adaptation of loanwords

Fonetika fonologia hitzez hitz

195 p. -- Bibliogr.: pp. 163-172Liburuaren helburu da fonetika-fonologiezko oinarriak ulertzeko gutxienekoak adieraztea eta gehiagorako, eztabaidarako «harra sartzea», nire ustez lanabes teoriko baliagarriak direnak eskainiz. Badu beste helburu bat ere liburuak: beste hizkuntzetako bibliografia euskaraz erabili ahal izatea, euskarazko ikerketan, euskarazko ikaskuntzan. Egun ikerketa aurreratuenaren hizkuntza komuna ingelesa denez, aipatu helburu horri dagokio liburu azkeneko hiztegia ingeles-euskara hurrenkeran ere agertzea

Ohar batzuk bokal batez: zubereraren [y]

The diachronic evolution from /u/ to /y/ in the Souletin dialect of Basque has traditionally been considered a borrowed sound change. Researchers have mostly focused on the issue of the environments impeding the change, which seems to be a specificity of Basque. This paper criticizes the traditional analysis via a diachronic chain of diphthongizations and monophthongizations, based on the theory of vocalic processes developed by Patricia Donegan. From that hypothesis, it follows that conditions motivating (or blocking) the change might have been prosodic factors nowadays opaque. Whether Basque shares with other languages those prosodic factors remains an open question. At any rate, given that the new sound results from older Souletin /u/ in native non-borrowed forms (also corresponding to /u/ in other modern varieties of the language), it seems clear that the evolution from /u/ to /y/ must have taken place throughout the history of Souletin Basque. Phonetic motivations should therefore be sought within Basque

Hots-aldaketaren inguruan

Hugo Schuchardt’s criticism of the neogrammarians in his "Über die Lautgesetze: Gegen die Junggrammatiker" is the starting point of this paper. In Schuchardt’s critical arguments interesting ideas may be found that still deserve our attention. Against the exceptionlessness of sound change held by neogrammarians Schuchardt puts forth language variability and the mental aspects of sound change. The fundamentally mental status of sound change proposed by Natural Phonology is presented in relation to the exclusively phonetic explanations, thus highlighting Schuchardt’s modernity (§ 3). Phonemic units that are being added to or deleted from the Basque inventory are mentioned as examples under § 3.2. Finally section 4 offers a brief reflection on the unsolved questions about sound change.; Hugo Schuchardtek "Über die Lautgesetze: Gegen die Junggrammatiker" lanean neogramatikoei egiten dien kritika du lan honek abiapuntu. Kritika horiek burutzeko arrazoibideetan badira egunerokotasunik galdu ez duten ideia interesgarri zenbait. Neogramatikoek aldarrikatutako hots aldaketen salbuespengabetasunaren aurka, Schuchardtek hizkuntzaren aldagarritasuna eta hots-aldaketen alderdi mentalak azpimarratzen ditu. Artikuluaren 3. atalean ahoskeraren esplikazio guztiz fonetikoen aurrean Fonologia Naturalak hots aldaketaren funts mentalaz dioena azaltzen da, Schuchardten argudioen gaurkotasuna nabarmenduz. Euskararen fonema inbentarioan gertatzen ari diren unitate gehitze edo murrizte batzuk aipatzen dira adibide moduan (§ 3.2). Azkenik (§ 4) hausnarketa laburra egiten da hots aldaketak irekita uzten dizkigun galderen inguruan

Sibilantes tras consonante sonante en euskera: inserción vs. africación, fonética y fonología

[ES] Este artículo trata sobre el proceso fonológico que en euskera convierte en africadas las fricativas sibilantes tras consonante sonante. El análisis de dicho proceso es particularmente adecuado para la discusión de la relación recíproca entre fonética y fonología tal y defendida por la Fonología Natural. Es ese marco teórico, este trabajo estudia la motivación fonética de la fonología; por otro lado, explora las consecuencias perceptivas –tal vez también productivas– de los distintos inventarios fonémicos de cada lengua, comparando el proceso de africación vasco con el más conocido proceso inglés de inserción oclusiva. Se argumenta que la opción terminológica africación vs. inserción podría no ser una cuestión trivial sino el reflejo de alguna diferencia en el procesamiento fonológico de condiciones fonéticas básicamente equivalentes. La optimización de la estructura silábica se presenta como otro posible elemento de la configuración del proceso y como factor que contribuye a la mayor o menor relevancia de éste en lenguas tipológicamente distintas. Se ofrecen en la sección 3 algunos comentarios sobre imágenes espectrográficas como muestra de las observaciones que dieron lugar al trabajo de investigación en curso.[EN] This paper deals with the Basque phonological process that affricates sibilant fricatives following sonorant consonants. The analysis of this process is particularly adequate for the discussion of the reciprocal relationship between phonetics and phonology as proposed by Natural Phonology. Within that theoretical framework, this study investigates the phonetic motivation of phonology; on the other hand, the perceptual –perhaps also productive– consequences of the language-specific phonemic systems are explored by comparing the Basque affrication process with the better known English process of stop insertion. It is argued that the terminological choice between affrication and insertion might not be a trivial issue, but the reflection of some difference in the phonological processing of basically equivalent phonetic conditions. The optimization of syllable structure is presented as another possible element in the shaping of the phonological process and an important factor of its relative relevance in typologically different languages. Some comments on spectrographic images are provided in section 3, in order to show the kind of observations that prompted this ongoing research

Where do dialectal effects on speech processing come from? Evidence from a cross-dialect investigation

Published online: 20 Jul 2016Accented speech has been seen as an additional impediment for speech processing; it usually adds linguistic and cognitive load to the listener's task. In the current study we analyse where the processing costs of regional dialects come from, a question that has not been answered yet. We quantify the proficiency of Basque–Spanish bilinguals who have different native dialects of Basque on many dimensions and test for costs at each of three levels of processing–phonemic discrimination, word recognition, and semantic processing. The ability to discriminate a dialect-specific contrast is affected by a bilingual's linguistic background less than lexical access is, and an individual's difficulty in lexical access is correlated with basic discrimination problems. Once lexical access is achieved, dialectal variation has little impact on semantic processing. The results are discussed in terms of the presence or absence of correlations between different processing levels. The implications of the results are considered for how models of spoken word recognition handle dialectal variation.This study was conducted with the support of the Spanish Government (MINECO) [grant number PSI 2010-17781]

Listening to Accented Speech in a Second Language: First Language and Age of Acquisition Effects

Online First March 10, 2016.Bilingual speakers must acquire the phonemic inventory of 2 languages and need to recognize spoken words cross-linguistically; a demanding job potentially made even more difficult due to dialectal variation, an intrinsic property of speech. The present work examines how bilinguals perceive second language (L2) accented speech and where accommodation to dialectal variation takes place. Dialectal effects were analyzed at different levels: An AXB discrimination task tapped phonetic-phonological representations, an auditory lexical-decision task tested for effects in accessing the lexicon, and an auditory priming task looked for semantic processing effects. Within that central focus, the goal was to see whether perceptual adjustment at a given level is affected by 2 main linguistic factors: bilinguals’ first language and age of acquisition of the L2. Taking advantage of the cross-linguistic situation of the Basque language, bilinguals with different first languages (Spanish or French) and ages of acquisition of Basque (simultaneous, early, or late) were tested. Our use of multiple tasks with multiple types of bilinguals demonstrates that in spite of very similar discrimination capacity, French-Basque versus Spanish-Basque simultaneous bilinguals’ performance on lexical access significantly differed. Similarly, results of the early and late groups show that the mapping of phonetic-phonological information onto lexical representations is a more demanding process that accentuates non-native processing difficulties. L1 and AoA effects were more readily overcome in semantic processing; accented variants regularly created priming effects in the different groups of bilinguals.This study was conducted with the support of the PSI 2010–17781 Grant to the second author from the Spanish Government (MINECO)

Hiztunaren fonema inbentarioa eta elebitasun goiztiarra: euskara gehi frantsesa vs. euskara gehi gaztelania

[EN] The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relations between early bilin- gualism and phoneme inventory among Basque-French and Basque-Spanish bilingual adults living in the Basque Country. The paper provides an overview of the complex issues that pho- nologists face when investigating the nativization of loanwords and, more generally, the ways in which unfamiliar sounds and sound sequences are adapted to converge with the native language’s sound pattern. The general feeling is that loanword nativization provides a direct window for observing how acoustic cues are categorized in terms of the distinctive features relevant to the L1 phonological system as well as for studying L1 phonological processes in action and thus to the true synchronic phonology of L1. The paper analyses these phenomena with a case study of Basque-French bilingual speech.[eus] Artikuluaren helburua da elebitasun goiztiarrak fonema inbentarioaren jabekuntzan eta gauzatzean izan dezakeen eragina aztertzea Euskal Herriko euskara-frantsesdun eta euskara-gaztelaniadun heldu elebidunen artean. Hots arrotzak bereganatzeko estrategia desberdinak erabiltzen ditu hiztun elebidunak, bere ama hizkuntzaren edo lehen hizkuntzaren fonemen arabera, eta jabekuntza adinak berebiziko pisua du jabekuntza prozesuan. Artikuluan gertakari hauek ditugu aztergai, Ipar Euskal Herrian gaur egungo euskara-frantsesdun elebidunekin egindako kasu azterketa zenbaiten bitartez.AThEME (EC FP7/SSH-2013-1 613465), ACOBA (ANR-2010-BLAN-1911-01), MINECO Ekonomia eta Lehiakortasun Ministerioa (FFI2012-33190) eta EHU 13/19

Standardisation of Basque: From grammar (1968) to pronunciation (1998)

This paper deals with the standardisation of the Basque language. Standardisation will be here understood as the codification of a linguistic variety accepted by the majority of speakers as a common form of the language. In the case of Basque, that stage was reached soon after the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia in Basque) proclaimed what was called Unified Basque (Euskara Batua) in 1968. It was then that the first stone was laid in a long and fundamentally successful process now facing the challenge of standardising pronunciation or, rather, finding a consensus on the pronunciation(s) of standard Basque. The main hypothesis to explain the success of Basque standardisation is that a historical conjunction of political and ideological circumstances worked as a con- spiracy of factors towards what constitutes so far the largest agreement ever reached by Basque speakers. Unified Basque achieved a social consensus that other political or cultural issues never obtained. Technicalities are kept to a minimum in this paper. More phonological details may be found in Oñederra (forthcoming), a work with which this one has obvious intersections.