On the Moraic Weight Representation of Geminates in Taguinian Algerian Arabic

This study sheds light on the moraic representation of geminates in Taguinian Spoken Arabic (TSA), a dialect of Algerian Arabic. The examined data were primarily provided by the first researcher who is a native speaker of the variety under scrutiny. To increase data reliability, the spontaneous speech of five Taguinian native speakers was analyzed by means of note taking and tape recording. The researchers support geminates’ moraicity in TSA by proffering three pieces of evidence, namely bimoraic word minimality condition, word stress, and long vowel shortening before geminates. A systematic analysis of the data via the use of optimality framework comes out with the following findings. First, the presence of CVG words demonstrates that geminates, in this variety, are underlyingly weight bearing since the minimal size of prosodic words is bimoraic. Second, the mechanism by which stress is attracted to CVG syllables proves that CVG syllables are heavy syllables wherein its second mora is carried by the geminate consonant. Third, the non-cooccurrence of long vowels and geminate consonants within the same syllable is another proof for the moraicity of geminates as trimoraic syllables are banned in TSA.

Minimality and Onset Conditions Interact with Vowel Harmony in Fungwa

This paper explores how the domain of vowel harmony can be affected by conditions involving minimality and the requirement for an onset within optimality theory (OT) framework. This work is based on the description and analysis of vowel harmony in Fungwa, an endangered Kainji, Benue-Congo (Niger state, Nigeria) language. In Fungwa, the root vowels trigger backness harmony which targets the vowels of onsetful prefixes and clitics. However, this harmony does not target vowels of onsetless prefixes. In this work, I argue that prosodic word (PWd) is the domain vowel harmony, a minimality condition and an onset condition. The vowel of the onsetful prefixes and clitics undergoing harmony is as a result of the minimality condition which dictates the occurence of the onsetful prefixes and clitics in the PWd. However, the onset condition on PWd results in the misalignment of the onsetless prefixes with the PWd, which is the domain of harmony.

Minimality via second variation for microphase separation of diblock copolymer melts

We consider a non-local isoperimetric problem arising as the sharp interface limit of the Ohta–Kawasaki free energy introduced to model microphase separation of diblock copolymers. We perform a second order variational analysis that allows us to provide a quantitative second order minimality condition. We show that critical configurations with positive second variation are indeed strict local minimizers of the problem. Moreover, we provide, via a suitable quantitative inequality of isoperimetric type, an estimate of the deviation from minimality for configurations close to the minimum in the

Weak Minimal Area in Entanglement Entropy

We revisit the minimal area condition of Ryu-Takayanagi in the holographic calculation of the entanglement entropy, in particular, the Legendre test and the Jacobi test. The necessary condition for the weak minimality is checked via Legendre test and its sufficient nature via Jacobi test. We show for AdS black hole with a strip type entangling region that it is this minimality condition that makes the hypersurface unable to cross the horizon, which is in agreement with that studied earlier by Engelhardt et al. and Hubeny using a different approach. Moreover, demanding the weak minimality condition on the entanglement entropy functional with the higher derivative term puts a constraint on the Gauss-Bonnet coupling; that is, there should be an upper bound on the value of the coupling,λa<(d-3)/4(d-1).