Iosad, Pavel

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      Glottal stop insertion in Scottish Gaelic and contrastivesyllabificationCitation for published version:Iosad, P 2013, 'Glottal stop insertion in Scottish Gaelic and contrastive syllabification' Paper presented atTeangeolaíocht na Gaeilge / Cànanachas na Gàidhlig / The Linguistics of the Gaelic Languages XV, Dublin,Ireland, 19/04/13 - 20/09/13, .Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Author final version (often known as postprint)Publisher Rights Statement:© Iosad, P. (2013). Glottal stop insertion in Scottish Gaelic and contrastive syllabification. Paper presented atTeangeolaíocht na Gaeilge / Cànanachas na Gàidhlig / The Linguistics of the Gaelic Languages XV, Dublin,Ireland.General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 20. Feb. 2015Glottal stop insertion in Scottish Gaelic and contrastivesyllabiﬁcationPavel IosadOllscoil Uladhp.iosad@ulster.ac.ukTeangeolaíocht na Gaeilge XV An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath 19Aibreán 20131 Glottal stops and pitch accents in Scottish Gaelic1.1 Pitch accents in Hebridean GaelicPitch accents in Hebridean Gaelic• It is well-known that Hebridean (e. g. Lewis) dialects show a contrast between two typesof ‘pitch accents’/‘word tones’ (Borgstrøm 1940; Oftedal 1956; Ladefoged et al. 1998)• Long rise (late peak)– Historical monosyllables: [ˈpoː] ‘cow’ (OI bó)– Including svarabhakti words: [ˈpalˠak] ‘bellows’ (OI bolg)• Rise-fall (early peak)– Historical disyllables: [ˈpalˠəx] ‘boy’– Including hiatus words: [ˈpoː] ‘underwater rock’ (ON boði)Pitch accents reﬂect syllabic structure• Following Ladefoged et al. (1998); Ladefoged (2003), it is possible to analyse the pitchcontours as reﬂecting syllable counts– The pitch contours: if the pitch accent is H*+L, the trailing tone can only appear indisyllables (rise-fall), in monosyllables we only see the H* rise– Rhyme palatalization: disyllabic plural [ˈpalˠɪç] ‘boys’ but monosyllabic [ˈpulʲukʲ] ‘bel-lows’– Invisibility to syncope: [ˈobəðʲ] ‘work’, gen. sg. [ˈobrəx] rather than *[ˈobəðʲəx] but[valaxu] rather than *[valxu] ‘boys (voc. pl.)’1Pitch accents as synchronic syllable count• Smith (1999) analyses the svarabhakti vowels in balg and bhalachaibh with complex prosodicmachinery (recursive syllables).Wdσv aσl aσx u• But they are basically inert• Proposal: these vowels are absent from surface phonological representationsPitch accents as synchronic syllable counts• Thus, balg is phonologically [palˠk]– Explains the tonal contour (Ladefoged et al. 1998)– Explains the rhyme palatalization to [pulʲkʲ]– Explains the behaviour with respect to syncope• Some things need ironing out– Dialects like Barra (Borgstrøm 1937; Clements 1986) where the svarabhakti vowel isnot always an exact copy ([ˈpulʲikʲ] builg)– Historical svarabhakti before deleted segments: [ˈfala.i] with ‘monosyllabic’ risingpitch (falbhaidh ‘will go’)• Still, this analysis makes sense (Oftedal 1956)1.2 Glottal stops in southern GaelicGlottal stops in southern Gaelic• Much like Danish stød corresponds to Norwegian and Swedish pitch accent, in southernGaelic the Hebridean pitch accents correspond to glottal stop insertion• Argyll (Holmer 1938; Jones 2000), Tiree (Ternes 1980), see also Ternes (2006); Eliasson(2000)• Tiree [poʔo] ‘underwater rock’ (Hebridean [ˈpoː] with rise-fall), [ˈpoː] ‘cow’ (Hebridean[poː] with rise)2• Smith (1999) suggests that the southern glottal stop is due to a stress-to-weight (Prince1992; Bye and de Lacy 2008) requirement: if a stressed syllable cannot be bimoraic, inserta glottal stop• Questions– Is GSI a live process? Yes– Is Smith (1999) correct? Yes2 Glottal stop insertion as stress-to-weight2.1 Glottal stop insertion is phonologicalIs GSI phonological?• A lot of the evidence is static⑴ a. No glottal stop insertion in heavy syllables⒤ [ˈtʰrɑμiμ] tràigh ‘shore’(ii) [ˈkʰlʲuːμμ] cliù ‘fame’(iii) [ˈpjɔːμμ] beò ‘alive’b. Glottal stop insertion is subminimal monosyllables⒤ [ˈtʰʲeμʔμ] teth ‘hot’(ii) [ˈmɛμʔμ] math ‘good’(iii) [ˈkruμʔμ] gruth ‘curds’• Evidence from alternations shows that at least in some cases it is a live phonological processInﬂection• Adding inﬂectional suﬃxes/clitics leads to open/closed syllable alternations⑵ a. Open syllables, glottal stop inserted⒤ [ˈkʰuμʔμ.riç mi] cuiridh mi ‘I will put’(ii) [ˈxuμʔμ.rə tu] chuireadh thu ‘you would put’b. Closed syllables, no glottal stop⒤ [ˈxuμrμ mi] chuir mi ‘I put (past)’(ii) [ˈxuμrμ u] chuir thu ‘you put (past)’Syncope• Noted by Smith (1999)• Open/closed syllable alternations due to syncope3⑶ a. ⒤ [ˈtɔμʔμ.rəs] dorus ‘door’(ii) [ˈtɔμrμ.ʃən] doirsean ‘doors’b. ⒤ [ˈpɑμʔμ.lʲə] baile ‘place’(ii) [ˈpɑμlμ.tʲən] bailtean ‘places’Phrase-level resyllabiﬁcation• Data from Jura (Jones 2000)• No GSI in closed syllables as expected⑷ [fɛn lɛm] fan leam ‘stay with me’• Postlexical syllabiﬁcation takes a normally weight-bearing segment out of the onset⑸ a. [ɣɛʔ.n ɑ] dh’fhan e ‘he stayed’b. [stɑʔ.t əŋ kʰɑːr] stad an càr ‘stop the car’c. [koʔ.p ənʲ ɛːn] gob an eun ‘the bird’s beak’2.2 The glottal stop is a moraic codaThe prosodic aﬃliation of the glottal stop• Smith (1999) proposes that glottal stop insertion is triggered by stress-to-weight• In other words, [ʔ] is a coda• This is important in cases like [poʔo] bodha: VC.V syllabiﬁcation?• Argued to be impossible• VC.V syllabiﬁcation can be reported by speakers (Ní Chiosáin, Welby, and Espesser 2012)• But examples of core phonological phenomena involving it are more diﬃcult to ﬁnd• I argue that southern Gaelic is an exampleThe glottal stop and weight-to-stress• As Smith (1999) observes, the glottal stop appears in open syllables as discussed above• Tellingly, it does not appear before svarabhakti vowels: [marəv] ‘dead’, consistent withsurface-phonological [marv]• Jones (2000) provides more evidence for the connection with moraicity• The rule is that there is no GSI in closed syllable is not ‘fully regular’ (gu léir cunbhalach)in Jura• We do get forms like [fɛʔn] ‘stay’ alongside [fɛn]4The connection with fortis sonorants• According to Jones (2000), word-ﬁnal [n l r] in forms like [fɛn] are long• GSI overapplies in closed syllables only before [n l r]• Obviously, these are the segments participating in the ‘fortis’ contrast+ The GSI overapplication is a type of compensatory lengthening before underlyingly moraicsonorants like lengthening/diphthongization (Ní Chiosáin 1991)3 Contrastive syllabiﬁcation in Scottish Gaelic3.1 Pitch accent and GSI as syllabic structureWhy is this important again?• If I have convinced you that glottal stop insertion creates moraic codas in light syllables, weare in a position to reconsider [poʔo] ‘underwater rock’• I suggest that the contrast between something like [poʔo] ‘underwater rock’ (bodha) and[poː] ‘cow’ (bó) is underlyingly one of syllable structure: /po⒪σ/ vs. /poo/• Syllable structure has been assumed to be completely predictable• For instance, for McCarthy (2007) syllabiﬁcation does not introduce a LUM because thereare no faithfulness constraints for syllabiﬁcationWeight-to-stress or hiatus?• Returning to [poʔo], how do we know that the glottal stop is not a hiatus-breaker?• We know that hiatus is repaired by contraction• Syncope deletes the second syllabic node (even if it stored), triggering contraction⑹ a. ⒤ [ˈjoʔur] leabhar ‘book’(ii) [ˈjowriçən] leabhraichean ‘books’b. ⒤ [ˈuʔul] ubhal ‘apple’(ii) [ˈuːlən] ubhlan ‘apples’• No explanation for this interaction if the glottal stophas nothing to do with syllabic structure53.2 Against empty onsetsStored syllable structure all around• Clements (1986); Smith (1999) have proposed to derive unusual syllabiﬁcation eﬀects inScottish Gaelic by postulating empty onset consonants• In /po_o/, the empty onset creates an open syllable• Conceptually, I can’t see an objection against empty segments• However, how do we know they are onsets?• Syllabiﬁcation is done by the phonology• Normally, syllabiﬁcation is driven by sonority (e. g. Zec 1988; Morén 2001; Topintzi 2010)• But…– How sonorous is an empty segment?– How do we know that the best prosodiﬁcation doesn’tinvolve, say, deletion?• The whole idea stands and falls on the onset status of the empty consonant• But that’s essentially storing a syllabic treeletWrapping up• Glottal stop insertion in southern Scottish Gaelic is driven by constraints on syllabic struc-ture• The existence of unpredictable glottal stops (and Hebridean pitch accents) shows that syl-labic structure is not fully predictable• Best analysis: assume that syllabic structure can also be stored (cf. Vaux 2003)+ After all, we can store– Foot structure (e. g. lexical stress)– Moraic structure (lexical vowel length, lexical geminates)– So why not syllabic structure?+ Syllables are not special6ReferencesBorgstrøm, Carl Hjalmar. 193⒎ ‘The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides.’ Norsk tidsskrift for spro-gvidenskap 8:71–24⒉. 1940. The dialects of the Outer Hebrides. 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Glottal stop insertion in Scottish Gaelic and contrastive syllabification

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