Syllable structure and complex onsets in Modern Hebrew

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-95
Author(s):  
Daniel Asherov ◽  
Outi Bat-El
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Modern Hebrew

Abstract Modern Hebrew allows for a diverse variety of syllable structures, allowing syllables with codas, onsetless syllables, and complex syllable margins. Syllables with a complex onset are found in word initial position, mostly in nouns, and syllables with a complex coda are less common. In this paper, we provide the distribution of syllable types in Modern Hebrew, noting differences between verbs and nouns, native words and loanwords, as well as differences among positions within the word. Special attention is given to word initial complex onsets, with details regarding the restrictions governing consonant combinations.

scholarly journals THE SYLLABLE STRUCTURE IN EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE

1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Helena Mateus ◽  
Ernesto D’Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
European Portuguese

The goal of this paper is to discuss the internal structure of the syllable in European Portuguese and to propose an algorithm for base syllabification. Due to the analysis of consonant clusters in onset position and the occurrence of epenthetic vowels, and considering the variation of the vowels in word initial position that occupy the syllable nucleus without an onset at the phonetic level, we assume that, in European Portuguese, the syllable is always constituted by an onset and a rhyme even though one of these constituents (but not both) may be empty, that is, one of then may have no phonetic realisation.

An L1 grammar-driven model of loanword adaptation

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunsoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Acoustic Output ◽  
Adaptation Model

The present study proposes an L1 grammar-driven loanword-adaptation model with three intermediate steps — L1 perception, L1 lexical representations and L1 phonology — between L2 acoustic output and L1 output by examining how the distinctive features, syllable structure constraints and structural restrictions of one’s native language steer speakers in their search to replace foreign sounds with native sounds. Our main source of data in support of this model comes from differences between the Korean adaptations of English and French voicing contrasts on the basis of a recent survey of English and French loans in the year 2011. In word-initial position, for example, English voiceless plosives are borrowed as aspirated plosives, while French voiceless plosives are borrowed as either aspirated or fortis plosives in free variation. Considering the data examined here, we suggest that the different Korean adaptations of English and French voicing contrasts in plosives are based on Korean speakers’ perception of redundant phonetic variants in the donor languages (L2) and that this perception is conditioned by the acoustic cues to the laryngeal features [±spread glottis] and [±tense] of Korean, the host language (L1). In contrast to some current models, it shows that the distinctive feature composition of L1 segments plays an important role in loanword adaptations. We also suggest that not only L1 laryngeal features but also L1 syllable structure constraints and lexical restrictions influence L1 perception of the L2 voicing contrasts in word-final postvocalic plosives and that variation in vowel insertion after the plosives in our 2011 data collection is motivated by L1 phonology in both English and French loans. Variation in vowel insertion after English and French word-internal preconsonantal coda plosives is also affected by the native phonology in the 2011 data, no matter whether the plosives are released, as in French, or unreleased, as in English.

Positional factors in syllabification

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Diana Passino
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Standard Theory ◽  
Constituent Structure ◽  
Internal Position ◽  
Governing Relation ◽  
Liquid Clusters ◽  
Uniformity Principle

AbstractFrom the perspective of standard generative phonological theory, syllable structure is not recorded in the lexicon but it is obtained by means of a syllabification algorithm based on a series of principles. In a given language, the algorithm should parse obstruent+liquid clusters as tautosyllabic both in word-initial and word-internal positions. The tautosyllabic parse as a branching onset complies with all principles on which the syllable-building algorithm is based. In standard theory, if branching onsets of obstruent+liquid are allowed in a language and documented in word-initial position, tautosyllabic parse is predicted to hold also word-internally. Likewise, Kaye’s (1992) Uniformity Principle makes the same prediction, since it states that sequences of contiguous positions that are in a governing relation and contain the same phonological material have the same constituent structure. The present paper draws attention to empirical data showing obstruent+liquid clusters being parsed tautosyllabically in word-initial position and heterosyllabically in word-internal position in the same language. An account is proposed to explain the data discussed, claiming that positional factors may also be relevant in determining syllabification.

Loanword phonology in Modern Hebrew

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-200
Author(s):  
Evan-Gary Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Stress System ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Loanword Phonology ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Stress Patterns

Abstract The phonology of loanwords often differs from the phonology of native words in various aspects. These differences are evident in the prosodic structure and even the segmental inventory. The differences between the loanword and native phonology, however, are not necessarily stable, and it is often the case that what originated as phonological structures in loanwords which were illicit in the native vocabulary eventually overrode the native norm, bringing about diachronic change to the phonology of the native words. Hebrew is no exception in this respect. The stress system of loanwords differs from that of native words, with the latter’s system undergoing changes inter alia due to the effect of loanwords (e.g. ante-penultimate stress, immobile stress patterns). The licit syllable structure inventory of native Hebrew words has been expanded to include loaned structures (e.g. complex codas, triconsonantal structures), and the phonemic inventory of Hebrew now includes several consonants originating in loanwords (e.g. ʒ and d͡ʒ).

scholarly journals Sonority Sequencing Violations and Prosodic Structure in Latin and Other Indo-European Languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jessica DeLisi
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Special Consideration ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Difficult Cases

Attention has been paid of late to syllable structure in ancient Indo-European languages, e.g. Sanskrit (Kobayashi, 2004), Latin (Marotta, 1999), Greek (Zukoff, 2012), Anatolian (Kavitskaya, 2001), and general Indo-European (Byrd, 2010; Keydana, 2012). There is little agreement in the field about some of the more difficult cases, most of which involve both word-initial and medial clusters that violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), particularly sibilant-stop clusters. Because sibilants are more sonorous than stops, [STV-] σ onsets to roots such as *steh2- require special consideration. I will argue that there are three types of evidence we can and should employ in attempting to diagnose syllable structure in ancient languages: metrical, phonological, and morphological. I will apply all three to Latin forms, showing that in Pre-Literary Latin, sibilant-stop clusters formed true onsets, as Byrd (2010) has argued for Proto-Indo-European, but that by the Classical period these SSP-violating clusters were no longer licensed as onsets. In such sequences, Classical Latin allowed only [t] in the onset, while the [s] formed a coda in medial position and was housed extraprosodically in word-initial position. The various treatments of ST-sequences in Latin and other Indo-European languages, especially PIE, Sanskrit, and Gothic, will be modeled in Optimality Theory using constraints on phonotactics and extraprosodicity.

Arabic in Modern Hebrew Texts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Creative Writing ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Population Displacement ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Hebrew

In the late 1950s, Iraqi Jews were either forced or chose to leave Iraq for Israel. Finding it impossible to continue writing in Arabic in Israel, many Iraqi Jewish novelists faced the literary challenge of switching to Hebrew. Focusing on the literary works of the writers Shimon Ballas, Sami Michael and Eli Amir, this book examines their use of their native Iraqi Arabic in their Hebrew works. It examines the influence of Arabic language and culture and explores questions of language, place and belonging from the perspective of sociolinguistics and multilingualism. In addition, the book applies stylistics as a framework to investigate the range of linguistic phenomena that can be found in these exophonic texts, such as code-switching, borrowing, language and translation strategies. This new stylistic framework for analysing exophonic texts offers a future model for the study of other languages. The social and political implications of this dilemma, as it finds expression in creative writing, are also manifold. In an age of mass migration and population displacement, the conflicted loyalties explored in this book through the prism of Arabic and Hebrew are relevant in a range of linguistic contexts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document