Processes of vowel harmony in the Servigliano dialect of Italian: A comparison of two non-linear proposals for the representation of vowel height

Probus ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. Nibert
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Vowel Height

scholarly journals Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ibikunle Abiodun Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Morphological Effect ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKAan Edoid language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.  

A nonlinear analysis of vowel harmony in Luganda

1984 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Katamba
Keyword(s):  
Nonlinear Analysis ◽  
Linear Theory ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Non Linear

In some languages, vowels occurring in some specified domain, which is usually the word, must share some phonetic property or properties. Such languages are said to have vowel harmony.Luganda, a Bantu language of Uganda, is unusual in having a vowel harmony system which is entirely morphologically conditioned. There is one subsystem which operates in the noun phrase and another irregular subsystem which operates in the verb phrase. The aim of this paper is to show how the non-linear theory of phonology developed by writers like Clements (1980, 1982) can throw some light on this apparently irregularity-ridden system.

Vowel height harmony and blocking in Buchan Scots

Phonology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Paster
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Sound Pattern ◽  
North East ◽  
Vowel Height

The Buchan Scots dialect of north-east Scotland exhibits a unique phonological phenomenon: vowel harmony is blocked by intervening consonants that have no secondary articulation or other obvious characteristic that should make them opaque to harmony. In this paper, I describe the harmony and blocking pattern based on new data from speakers of the modern dialect. After establishing this as a phonological rather than phonetic effect, I propose a synchronic analysis of the pattern and a phonetic explanation for the origin of this unusual sound pattern.

scholarly journals Positional prominence and the ‘prosodic trough’ in Yaka

Phonology ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry M. Hyman
Keyword(s):  
General Analysis ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Partial Analysis ◽  
Vowel Height

The issue of vowel height harmony – relatively rare in the world's languages – is one that most serious theories of phonology have addressed at one time or another, particularly as concerns its realisation in Bantu (e.g. Clements 1991, Archangeli & Pulleyblank 1994, Beckman 1997). As is quite well known, the majority of an estimated 500 Bantu languages exhibit some variant of a progressive harmony process by which vowels lower when preceded by an appropriate (lower) trigger. (Ki)-Yaka, a Western Bantu language spoken in ex-Zaire, designated as H.31 by Guthrie (1967–71), has a height harmony system which has been analysed as having a similar left-to-right lowering process. In this paper I argue against the general analysis given for Yaka, showing that this language differs in a major way from the rest of Bantu. The goals of the paper are threefold. First, I present a comprehensive treatment of the unusual vowel harmony system in (ki-)Yaka. Second, I introduce the notion of the ‘prosodic trough’ (τ), a domain which is needed in order to state important phonological generalisations in Yaka and in Bantu in general. Finally, I show the relevance of the Yaka facts for the study of positional prominence in phonology. A (partial) analysis is offered within optimality- theoretic terms, particularly as developed by McCarthy & Prince (1995). Although superficially resembling the vowel height harmony found in most Bantu languages, the Yaka system will be shown to differ from these latter in major ways. The paper is organised as follows. In §2 I establish the general nature of the Yaka harmony system, reanalysing previous accounts in terms of ‘plateauing’. In §3 I turn to the process of ‘imbrication’, which introduces a second motivation for vowel harmony: the avoidance of the sequence [wi]. A third source of vowel harmony is presented in §4, which also introduces the notion of the ‘prosodic trough’. The study ends with a brief conclusion in §5 and an appendix that discusses outstanding problems.

scholarly journals Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Morphological Effect ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKA[1], an Edoid[2] language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.

Segmental Phonology: Vowels

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing ◽  
Al Mtenje
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Vowel Phoneme ◽  
Vowel Height

This chapter begins with a discussion of the Chichewa vowel phoneme inventory and its relation to the Proto-Bantu vowel inventory. The distribution of vowels in different morphological and phonological positions in the word is taken up next. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of Bantu vowel height harmony (VHH), a process that conditions the possible vowel combinations in stems in Chichewa as in many Bantu languages. Data from a range of morphological and phonological contexts is provided to show that vowel harmony patterns in Chichewa fit Hyman’s (1999b) characterization of “canonical” Bantu VHH. Accounting for vowel harmony—and in particular Bantu VHH—has played an important role in the development of phonological theories of the representation and assimilation of vocalic properties from the 1980s to the present (Hyman 2003d). For this reason, the chapter takes up three different theoretical approaches to Bantu VHH in some detail.

Mid-vowel alternations in the Brazilian Portuguese verb

Phonology ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Leo Wetzels
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Linear Analysis ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Phonological Rules

The underlying system of consonants and vowels in Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth BP), together with the lexical and word-level phonological rules and the interactions between them, has been studied in great detail (see e.g. Harris 1974; Lopez 1979; Redenbarger 1981; Quicoli 1990). The detailed knowledge we possess in this area of BP phonology makes the language an excellent test case for evaluating theoretical innovations, especially since genuine descriptive and explanatory progress can only be achieved by virtue of improved theoretical models. The discussion in this paper will focus on the rules of Vowel Harmony (henceforth VH), Truncation, Neutralisation and Vowel Lowering in verbs (henceforth VL), for which a non-linear analysis will be proposed. One of the purposes of this paper is to show that a treatment of the BP vowel alternations in non-linear terms yields an elegant and explanatory description of a substantial part of the BP phonological component. Another goal is to present the theoretically relevant aspects of the BP facts. It will be argued that aperture distinctions in BP are advantageously represented by a single phonetic parameter, which will not only dispense with the features [high] and [low], but also with [ATR] or [tense], which have been frequently used to distinguish the two series of BP mid vowels. Also, further evidence will be provided in favour of the hypothesis advanced by a number of phonologists (see Clements 1991a; Odden 1991) that aperture features should be represented as constituents in the vocalic feature tree.

Vowel harmony in Buchan Scots English

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Primary Stress ◽  
Vowel Height

In this article, I discuss vowel reduction, stress, and vowel harmony in Buchan Scots English, a dialect spoken in Aberdeenshire in northern Scotland. Work by Wölck (1965) describes Buchan Scots English as having vowel harmony. This article explores the conditions that restrict the distribution of vowels in those syllables that do not receive a primary stress. Such syllables allow a smaller range of contrasts, and vowel height in these syllables is at least partially predictable from a preceding stressed vowel. These facts show that both vowel reduction and vowel harmony operate in Buchan Scots English.

scholarly journals Establishing the Three-Way Voicing Contrast in Madurese Stops

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Misnadin Misnadin
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Voicing Contrast ◽  
Vowel Height

Madurese, a Western Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on the Indonesian island of Madura, has been described as having a three-way voicing contrast (i.e. voiced, voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated) in its stops. However, the fact that the VOT values for voiceless unaspirated and aspirated stops are not large and they are also followed by vowels with different height raises a question if Madurese only contrasts voiced and voiceless stops phonologically instead. The goal of this paper is to establish the phonological status of the voicing contrast in Madurese stops, arguing that Madurese can be better described as a language with a three-way contrast. For this purpose, we provide phonological evidence that includes consonant-vowel interactions, vowel harmony processes and some morphophonemic processes involving vowel height alternations. All of this evidence is also used to substantiate the proposal that consonants trigger vowel height alternation rather than vowels trigger consonant allophony.  

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