scholarly journals Lexical strata and vowel (dis)harmony: the Turkish transformation of a Balkan hypocoristic

Linguistica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-320
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Walter
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Lexical Variation ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Indexed Constraints ◽  
Constraints Model

In this study I explore the phonological behavior of the hypocoristic suffix /-oʃ/-/iʃ/ in Turkish. Such a suffix is common to many of the Balkan languages. Turkish differs in its introduction of the front vowel variant of the suffix, presumably to satisfy the vowel harmony requirements in Turkish for backness and rounding in high vowels. However, in spite of the potentially alternating suffix allomorphs, collection of naturalistic data as well as of elicited survey data reveals that the majority of nickname outputs are disharmonic. I conclude that the Turkish data provides further evidence for Ito and Mester’s (2009) key insight that different strata of the lexicon may operate according to different rules/constraint rankings. However, the Turkish data is not consistent with their specific faithfulness-based approach. The hypocoristic lexical stratum exhibits a greater number of vowel harmony violations, but not due to more faithfulness to vowel inputs/underlying forms. Rather, the harmony violations in this stratum are gratuitous – I argue, precisely in order to distinguish this stratum from the lexicon at large. An approach such as Pater’s (2010) indexed constraints model better accommodates this type of lexical variation.

Aperture harmony

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van der Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Common Element ◽  
Binary Features ◽  
High Vowels

This chapter analyzes a number of vowel harmony systems which have been described or analyzed in terms of aperture (lowering or raising, including complete harmony). This takes us into areas where the literature on vowel harmony discusses cases involving the following binary features: [± high], [± low], [± ATR], and [± RTR]. Raising has been thought of as problematic for unary ‘IUA’ systems as these systems lack a common element for high vowels. This chapter suggests that raising can be attributed to ATR-harmony. The chapter also discusses typological generalizations and analyzes metaphony in Romance languages.

scholarly journals Regressive Vowel Harmony in Libyan Arabic

2019 ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
Yousef Mokhtar Elramli ◽  
Tareq Bashir Maiteq
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Skeletal Structure ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
The City

The aim of this paper is to study Regressive vowel harmony induced by a suffixal back round vowel in the Libyan Arabic dialect spoken in the city of Misrata. The skeletal structure in the collected words is a /CVCVC-/ stem followed by the third person plural suffix /-u/. Consequently, the derived form of the examined words becomes /CVCVCV/. Following a rule of re-syllabification, the coda of the ultimate syllable in the stem becomes the onset of the newly formed syllable (ultimate in the derived form). Thus, in the presence of the suffix /-u/ in the derived form, all vowels in the word must harmonise with the [+round] feature of /-u/ unless there is a high front vowel /i/ intervening. In such cases, the high front vowel is defined as an opaque segment that is incompatible with the feature [+round]. Syllable and morpheme boundaries within words do not seem to contribute to blocking the regressive spreading of harmony. An autosegmental approach to analyze these words is adopted here. It is concluded that there are two sources in underlying representations for regressive vowel harmony in Libyan Arabic. One source is floating [+round] and another source is [+round].

Moro vowel harmony: implications for transparency and representations

Phonology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Ritchart ◽  
Sharon Rose
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
The Other ◽  
Height System ◽  
High Vowels

This paper describes and analyses the vowel-harmony system of the Kordofanian language Moro. Moro has a cross-height dominant-recessive raising harmony system in which high vowels and a central mid vowel trigger harmony, while peripheral mid vowels and a central low vowel are harmony targets. Schwas can co-occur with any of the vowels, appearing inert to harmony. Yet when schwas occur alone in a morpheme, some trigger harmony and some do not. We suggest that an original ATR-harmony system shifted to a height system via merger and centralisation, producing two distinct central vowels, rather than a single schwa. One vowel patterns with the higher vowels in triggering harmony, and the other patterns with the lower vowels. We also propose that a particle-based representation offers the best characterisation of the groupings of target and trigger vowels in the language.

scholarly journals Bondu-so vowel harmony: A descriptive analysis with theoretical implications

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-26
Author(s):  
Abie Hantgan ◽  
Stuart Davis
Keyword(s):  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Language Data ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
The Relationship

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the [ATR] vowel harmony system of Bondu-so (Dogon, Mali), a previously undocumented language. Data come from fieldwork and have not yet been published. While Bondu-so has seven surface vowels, namely, two [+ATR, +high] vowels ([i], [u]), a [–ATR +low] vowel [a] and a [±ATR] contrast in the mid vowels with front [e]/[ɛ] and back [o]/[ɔ], there is evidence for a more abstract vowel system phonologically consisting of ten vowels with [±ATR] contrasts with all vowel heights. Further, the language shows a three-way contrast with respect to the feature [ATR] on suffixal vowels: some suffixal vowels act as [+ATR] dominant, spreading their [+ATR] feature onto the root; other suffixes act as [–ATR] dominant, spreading [–ATR] onto the root, and still other suffixes have vowels unspecified for [ATR] receiving their [±ATR] feature by rightward spreading of the [±ATR] value of the root vowel. We offer an autosegmental analysis and then discuss the theoretical implications of such an analysis. These implications include the ternary use of [ATR], the issue of phonological versus morphological harmony, the relationship between vowel inventories and [ATR] harmony systems, and the question of abstractness in phonology.

scholarly journals Vowel harmony and vowel merger in Agoi

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15
Author(s):  
Shirley Yul-Ifode
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Language Data ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Cross Language

This paper describes the vowel harmony system and patterns of vowel merger in Agoi, an Upper Cross language. Data indicate that a once fully operative system of vowel harmony has now been generally restricted to the non-high vowels, with a few residual instances of II u/-determined harmony. The evolution of this change is described.

scholarly journals The Role of Anti-harmony in Learning Neutral Vowels

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Grammar Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Back Vowel

The present study used an artificial grammar learning paradigm to explore the prediction that exposure to anti-harmony might help learners infer that a neutral vowel in a vowel harmony language is transparent. Participants were exposed to a back/round harmony language with a neutral vowel [a]. This neutral vowel either always selected a back vowel suffix,  always selected a front vowel suffix, or selected both front-and back vowel suffixes, in adherence to anti-harmony. Results indicated that exposure to a back/round harmony with the neutral vowel selecting either back vowel suffixes, or both front and back vowel suffixes, could induce a bias towards transparent vowels. Assuming that participants inferred that the centralized [a] paired with [o] harmonically, then the predictions that exposure to anti-harmony could induce a bias towards a transparent vowel interpretation were borne out. However, the bias towards a transparent vowel was not significantly different between the anti-harmony conditions and the harmony condition, suggesting that this effect should be replicated with other neutral vowels.

scholarly journals Study of Lexical Variation between Dhani and Majhi Punjabi

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (IV) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Wasim Hasan ◽  
Arshad Ali Khan
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Word List ◽  
Lexical Variation ◽  
Punjab Province ◽  
Communication Gap

Abstract The present study highlights lexical variation in Dhani and Majhi dialects of Punjabi language spoken in Pakistani Punjab that may lead to a communication gap. It focuses on the description of vocabulary differences of words of daily use. It is partly qualitative and partly quantitative research, which was conducted through a survey. Data were collected from thirty participants (15 speakers from each variety) from Chakwal district of Rawalpindi Division and Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib districts of Lahore Division in Punjab province, Pakistan. It was collected through a word list consisting of two hundred and sixty vocabulary items that are used in daily conversation. Results retrieved from analysis of the collected data show that two hundred and nine Dhani words, i-e 80 %, do not exist in Majhi variety at all and have their alternatives in Majhi whereas, fifty-one words i-e 20 % exist but are pronounced differently in Majhi.

scholarly journals ATR Vowel Harmony: new patterns and diagnostics

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Rose
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Perceptual Distance ◽  
Perceptual Difficulty ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
High Vowels

This paper presents a large-scale typological study of over 500 Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo vowel inventories, both with and without ATR harmony. The survey reveals: i) ATR contrasts in high vowels correlate with a strong likelihood of ATR harmony; ii) the vowel system /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/ (termed 1IU in Casali 2008) does not correlate well with ATR harmony. In Nilo-Saharan, such systems do not show ATR harmony, and in Niger-Congo, the majority of such systems also do not have harmony. The survey results are interpreted in terms of perceptual distance, driven by inventory contrast. High vowel ATR contrasts are perceptually more difficult than mid contrasts and activate harmony. In languages that lack mid vowel contrasts, [+ATR] harmony derives allophonic [e o] from /ɛ ɔ/. In languages that lack high vowel contrasts, mid vowel contrasts do not present enough of a perceptual difficulty to reliably activate harmony. If harmony is present, it tends to operate only between mid vowels and does not generate allophonic high vowels. 

scholarly journals Coarticulation and learnability of transparent vowels in vowel harmony

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Natural Condition ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
Training Control

The representations of transparent vowels in vowel harmony have been of interest to phonologists because of the challenges they pose for constraints on locality and complexity. One proposal is that transparent vowels in back vowel harmony may be intermediate between front and back. The present study uses two artificial language learning experiments to explore the psychological reality of acoustic differences in transparent vowels in back vs. front vowel contexts. Participants were exposed to a back/round vowel harmony language with a neutral vowel that was spliced so that the F2 was lower in back vowel contexts and higher in front vowel contexts (the Natural condition) or the reverse (the Unnatural condition). While only participants in the Natural condition of Experiment 1 were able to learn the behavior of the transparent vowel relative to a No-Training control, there was no difference between the Natural and Unnatural conditions. In Experiment 2, only participants in the Natural condition learned the vowel harmony pattern, though there were no significant differences between the two conditions. No condition successfully learned the behavior of the transparent vowel in Experiment 2. These results suggest that the effects of small differences in the F2 value of transparent back vowels on learnability are minimal.

Tongue Root Harmony in Nata

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joash J. Gambarage ◽  
Douglas Pulleyblank
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Initial Root

An examination of vowel harmony in Nata (Bantu, E45), reveals a fairly straightforward pattern of harmony in tongue root values for adjacent mid vowels. A problem arises, however, when we look at the behavior of harmony in prefixes. In some nouns, the class prefixes are retracted when the initial root vowel is retracted and advanced when the initial root vowel is advanced. Problematic, however, are other forms in which roots with initial retracted vowels condition the appearance of high vowels in the noun class prefixes. In earlier work, Gambarage argued that to account for the distinction between cases where mid vowels retract and cases where mid vowels raise to high, it is necessary to invoke two distinct co-phonologies. It is argued that the two patterns observed in Nata are readily accounted for within an “allomorphy account,” without the need to invoke multiple co-phonologies. The integration of general phonotactics governing vowel harmony with allomorphy appropriate for particular roots derives the two patterns in a unified fashion.

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