scholarly journals An Optimality Theory-Based Approach into the Phonotactic Constraints of English Spoken by Broadcasters in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
Abdulmalik Usman ◽  
Aisha Abubakar

<p style="text-align: justify;">One of the observations in the English spoken particularly in Nigeria is phonotactic constraints. The constraints pin down the generalization which guide the articulation of sequences of phonemes. The paper examines the patterns of English consonant clusters articulation of Nigerian broadcasters in the onset and coda positions against Received Pronunciation English. The study is conducted within the framework of Optimality Theory (henceforth OT). 20 radio and television broadcasters from 4 electronic media were selected as participants. Data were obtained by means of production test and OT was employed for the analysis. The findings revealed that the participants used epenthetic vowels to break-up consonants clusters in the onset and consonant deletion to simplify clusters in the coda. The subjects’ productions can be captured by ranking Markedness constraints higher than Faithfulness constraints.</p>

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Auger

One striking feature of Vimeu Picard concerns the regular insertion of epenthetic vowels in order to break up consonant clusters and to syllabify word-initial and word-final consonants. This corpus-based study focuses on word-initial epenthesis. It provides quantitative evidence that vowel epenthesis applies categorically in some environments and variably in others. Probabilistic analysis demonstrates that the variable pattern is constrained by a complex interplay of linguistic factors. Following Labov (1972a, 1972b) and Antilla and Cho (1998), I interpret such intricate grammatical conditioning as evidence that this variation is a reflection of a grammatical competence that generates both categorical and variable outputs, and I propose an account within the framework of Optimality Theory. An analysis of individual patterns of epenthesis by members of the community reveals that, even though all speakers share the same basic community grammar, their use of epenthesis differs qualitatively as well as quantitatively. I show that individual grammars can be derived from the community grammar, and that Optimality Theory allows us to formalize the idea that individual grammars constitute more specific versions of community grammars.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Metab Alhoody ◽  
Mohammad Aljutaily

The paper investigates the syllable structures of Qassimi Arabic (QA), which is a sub-dialect of Najdi Arabic (NA) and is spoken in the north-central region of Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Qassim Region. Within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), we show how the well-formed syllable is derived from the interaction of constraints. We show how the OT captures some of the major processes for structuring the syllables of QA, such as syncope, epenthesis, and geminate. The analysis revealed that onsetless syllables are prohibited in QA. The dialect allows word-initial consonant clusters, which is a result of the syncope process. Coda clusters also occur in QA that must obey the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP); otherwise, epenthesis presents to repair the violation. As for the geminates, QA permits geminates medially and finally, but not initially. The data revealed that QA demonstrates seven fundamental syllable structures grouped into three categories: light syllables, as in CV; heavy syllables, as in CVV and CVC; and super heavy syllables, as in CVVC, CVCC, CCVVC and CVVCC.


Linguistics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 1463-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis G. Bradley ◽  
Jacob J. Adams

Abstract This article investigates consonant gemination in late Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-century haketía, a now moribund, regional dialect of Judeo-Spanish spoken in northern Morocco since the late fifteenth century. Some, but not all, consonant clusters arising across a word boundary undergo regressive total assimilation, e.g. [n.n] siudad ninguna ‘no city’ but [z.n] laz niñas ‘the girls’. We present novel descriptive generalizations to show that regressive gemination is sensitive to the degree of sonority distance between the coda and the onset. Evidence of parasitic harmony comes from lateral+consonant clusters, which undergo gemination only if the target and trigger consonants are already similar in some respect. In the framework of Optimality Theory, we formalize syllable contact as a relational hierarchy of *Distance constraints and capture parasitic harmony effects by similarity avoidance, or Obligatory Contour Principle, constraints against adjacent consonants with identical manner and/or place features. These markedness constraints interact with other universal faithfulness and markedness constraints in a language-specific ranking that predicts the attested patterns of regressive gemination. This study lends further support to sonority distance effects and gradient syllable contact in phonological theory and shows that similarity avoidance is also necessary to give a full account of regressive gemination in Moroccan Judeo-Spanish.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 434-465
Author(s):  
Mufleh Salem M. Alqahtani

AbstractThis study sheds light on the relationship between the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) and syllable structure in Sabzevari, a Persian vernacular spoken in the Sabzevar area of Northeast Iran. Optimality Theory (OT), as a constraint-based approach, is utilized to scrutinize sonority violation and its repair strategies. The results suggest that obedience to the SSP is mandatory in Sabzevari, as shown through the treatment of word-final clusters in Standard Persian words which violate the SSP. These consonant clusters are avoided in Sabzevari by two phonological processes: vowel epenthesis and metathesis. Vowel epenthesis is motivated by final consonant clusters of the forms /fricative+coronal nasal/, /plosive+bilabial nasal/, /fricative+bilabial nasal/, /plosive+rhotic/, /fricative+rhotic/, and /plosive+lateral/. Metathesis, as another repair strategy for sonority sequencing violations, occurs when dealing with final consonant clusters of the forms /plosive+fricative/and / fricative+lateral/.


Author(s):  
Mohd Hamid Raza

This paper provided the basic information of the phonological processes as the Coda Neutralization and Phonotactics of English Loans in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). The objectives of this paper were to represent the aspects of the coda neutralization in the sense of voiced obstruent segment becomes voiceless obstruent segment in the final syllable structure of the loanwords, and the consonant clusters break within the insertion of an extraneous segment in any location of the English Loans in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu. In the another framework, this paper revealed the phenomena of devoicing features of coda consonants and the grades of the additional segments in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu loanwords within the principles of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993). The central idea of this paper was to explore the process of conflicts between the candidates at the surface level and reflects the properties of the input candidate by the observation of the constraint rankings. In this study, it was propounded the effective formalities of the hierarchy of the constraint rankings and drew one of the best candidates as an optimal candidate out of the output candidates from English loans in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu. The groundwork of this paper was related to the significant aspects of the English loans that were adapted within the addition, insertion, or deletion of the segments in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu. In this paper, it was also determined the facts of the coda devoicing of the speech segments in terms of neutralization at the end of the syllable structure of English loans in Pilibhit Hindi-Urdu.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Man Yuan ◽  
Wei Cheng

Lexical stress is an important contributor to foreign accent as well as intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. The present study intends to find out to what extent Chinese-speaking learners whose native language has less evident stress can acquire English lexical stress. A production test was administered to nine advanced Chinese learners of English and nine native English controls, who read aloud 12 types of nonce English nouns. The results showed that the Chinese participants were able to place stress correctly in two-syllable words and three-syllable words with a heavy penultimate syllable. However, irregularity was observed in three-syllable words with a light penultimate syllable, particularly H(eavy)L(ow)L(ow). The results are further interpreted in Optimality Theory. It is argued that the learners’ interlanguage grammar is both negatively and positively influenced by their native language. The constraint only active in Chinese causes the interlanguage to be non-nativelike. By contrast, the shared active constraints facilitate learning. Moreover, the emergence of the constraints in the interlanguage grammar which are inactive in Chinese but active in English provides evidence for the learners’ ability to restructure their interlanguage phonology.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-53
Author(s):  
Antonio Baroni

Abstract Notwithstanding the primacy of the CV syllable, a number of languages allow for more complex types of syllables. In particular, word-initial consonant clusters are particularly challenging for any phonological theory. In this paper it is argued that obstruent clusters may be the result of casual speech processes where the most salient/ frequent phonemes and features occurring in most pronunciation variants of a word are preserved. As a result, sibilants, being acoustically salient, tend to occur more often than other obstruents as the first member of word-initial obstruent clusters. A framework couched in Optimality Theory is presented, where a subfamily of faithfulness constraints refer to strength values stored in the underlying representation. The more salient and/or frequent a phoneme/feature is, the higher the strength value assigned to it. Finally, a number of languages are compared, arguing that their phonotactic differences may be due to the different ranking of markedness constraints and MAX-STRENGTHVALUE constraints.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Thong Vi Nguyen

The present study aims to adopt the Optimality Theory to investigate the strategies of pronouncing the final consonant clusters in English by a group of Vietnamese L1 speakers. Vietnamese is a language without the final consonant clusters; therefore, Vietnamese ESL learners tend to have different strategies to pronounce those. Seven Vietnamese graduate students were employed to record their word-list out-loud reading. Each of the consonants occurring in their pronunciation production was considered as one token to be analyzed. The result shows that Vietnamese ESL learners employ five different strategies to generate the final consonant clusters. After that, by adopting the Optimality Theory, this study provides both faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints for each strategy with the attempt to generalize the cases of the final consonant pronunciation of Vietnamese speakers. This study is significant for ESL teachers to understand how the Vietnamese language affects the ESL learners’ final sound pronunciation


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Dedy Suhery ◽  
Happy Sri Rezeki Purba ◽  
Mohammad Hamid Raza ◽  
Khairun Nisah

Abstract  This paper contains the phonological properties of the syllable structures and the economical procedures of the words in the Urdu language. The paper determines the behavior of certain segments that attach to its own neighboring words and elaborates the economy of the syllable structure of tokens in a particular language. In Urdu, there are various types of segmental processes in terms of addition or deletion of phonemes that affects to root and alters the entire physical mechanism structure of words. The objectives of this paper are to know the exact economic conditions of syllable structures in the words after the addition or elision of segments in the Urdu language. All the process of conflicts between the segments will manipulate by the help of constraint rankings in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993). The general purpose of this paper is to reveal the whole criteria of implications of principles of Optimality theory and explore the actual framework of syllables with their marginal and obligatory components. The researcher governs the phonological property of consonant clusters with the help of faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints. The architecture of root word completely varies from the artificial formulation of other words, but after the imposition of constraints, we reveal the concrete fact of linguistic items in a specific language. The groundwork of this paper leads to the systematic phenomena of epenthesis and elimination of vowels or consonants with the tenets of OT. In this study, the researcher conveys the representations of consonant clusters and how the adjacent consonants parse by the effect of the extraneous segment in the syllable structure of words. The researcher considers the typology of the syllable structure of words and the phonological observations of linguistic features. This paper deals with the gradient property of segments that alters the framework of underlying form and affected by some other features at the surface form. The generalization of each step of the syllable structure of words should be related to the positional variation of input and output candidates. The conflicts between input and output candidates to become the winner as an optimal candidate can be solved only on the presence of constraint rankings that are evolving in the Optimality Theory. The central idea of this paper delineated the reflection of surface forms that create conflicts between other candidates, solve only through the use of constraints of Optimality Theory. A surface form may be optimal in the sense of least serious violations of a set of violable constraints in a language hierarchy of constraints. It is considered that syllable structure with the phonological and phonetic representation of forms is the major ingredient generalization of the structure of words in a particular language. It is a crucial aspect of a sequence of segments to organize in a well-formed structure after the intervention of vowels and consonants because syllable governs the account of epenthesis and elimination process. In the pattern of sequence of segments in the syllables, there is the process of epenthesis and deletion of phonemes that creates a new wave of segmental processes. This paper determines the syllabic well-formedness turn out of instantiation that refers to the conflicts between faithfulness and well-formedness structure of words regarding the syllables. The range of syllables and the economic property of words in the individual languages rise by the interactions of well-formedness and faithfulness constraints. The basic provision of this paper is to know the precise nature of the typology of the syllable structure in the words and explores how OT captures the well-formedness constraints of input and output candidates. Our whole discussion in this paper will draw on the typological representation of Optimality Theory and the logical results of Prince and Smolensky (1993) that are transposed into a correspondence format. After the analysis of the structural typology of syllables and epenthesis in the Urdu language, we will develop the factorial typology of syllabic well-formedness and faithfulness constraints in the words. We will elaborate on the major factors of constraints and epenthesis at the level of cross-linguistic properties of a particular language. In this study, we will learn how a range of phonological factors of syllable structures triggered by the markedness constraints that is depending on the formal features of faithfulness constraints. It is investigated that unity and diversity at the level of syllable structure are oriented by OT due to the interaction between deep and surface forms to mark the constraints in various repair strategies. It is the process of relating the ranking of different faithfulness constraints with the result of the typological observation of candidates. This paper determines that the factorial typology of the syllable structure of words is based on the Correspondence Theory (McCarthy and Prince 1995) that is a sub-theory of faithfulness constraints allowing a limited set of structural changes such as; addition, deletion, insertion, fusion, featural changes, etc. The central goal of this paper is to shed light on the core behavior of OT principles that are applied to the syllables of the words to find out the exact tokens of a particular language. It is examined that the universality of constraint rankings is sketched by the application of linguistic theory with the notions of ‘possible grammatical processes' and possible interactions of processes'. Some experts provided the values of syllable structures with the tenets of OT as the unmarked value for open or closed syllables. It is a type of assumption that some languages may or may not be open syllables (CV) and closed syllables (VC), while the notion of universality represents all aspects of syllables in all existing languages. This paper reveals that the notion of markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints is not only relevant to the sound system but also proposes to the syllable structure of words and their economy in a particular language. In addition to that, I also apply some better-known arguments originally adduce in support of constraint rankings. Keywords: Optimality Theory; Syllable Structure; Economy; Segmental Processes; Syllable Typology  


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
MUFLEH ALQAHTANI ◽  
Rebecca Musa

<p>Vowel epenthesis is discussed in this paper as a phonological process utilized to avoid codas in Arabic loanwords in Hausa language in light of Optimality Theory (OT), as an analytical framework, even though this language permits codas in heavy syllables of the form CVC  (Caron, 2011). This process results in having disyllabic, trisyllabic, or qadri-syllabic words (words with four syllables) depending on the forms of Arabic loanwords as well as  mono-syllabic words with final bi-consonant clusters. This study primarily relies on extant literature including theses, books, articles. Furthermore, the authors’ intuition is crucially deemed the judge on the facts of the data . This paper concludes that codas in Arabic loanwords in Hausa motivate vowel epenthesis either once or twice, depending on the forms of words; i.e. disyllabic or monosyllabic. Also, the number of vowel insertion depends on the number of consonants in the coda postion, i.e. /CVCC/→ vowel epenthesis→ [CVC.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>] or [CV.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>.C<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">V</span></strong>].</p>


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