An Autosegmental Account of Melodic Processes in Jordanian Rural Arabic

This study aims at providing an autosegmental account of feature spread in assimilatory situations in Jordanian rural Arabic. I hypothesise that in any assimilatory situation in Jordanian rural Arabic the undergoer assimilates a whole or a portion of the matrix of the trigger. I also hypothesise that assimilation in Jordanian rural Arabic is motivated by violation of the obligatory contour principle on a specific tier or by spread of a feature from a trigger to a compatible undergoer. Data of the study were analysed in the framework of autosegmental phonology with focus on the notion of dominance in assimilation. Findings of the study have revealed that an undergoer assimilates a whole of the matrix of a trigger in the assimilation of /t/ of the detransitivizing prefix /Ɂɪt-/, coronal sonorant assimilation, and inter-dentalization of dentals. However, partial assimilation occurs in the processes of nasal place assimilation, anticipatory labialization, and palatalization of plosives. Findings have revealed that assimilation occurs when the obligatory contour principle is violated on the place tier. Violation is then resolved by deletion of the place node in the leftmost matrix and by right-to-left spread of a feature from rightmost matrix to leftmost matrix. It has been also revealed that spread of a primary or a non-primary feature from a trigger to an undergoer can motivate assimilation to occur in some assimilatory situations in Jordanian rural Arabic.

A vocalização da lateral posvocálica em Francês

calization of the lateral in syllabic coda provided French with forms that have rounded posterior vowels, such as /, / (cf. salvus > fr. saufs // ‘salvo’; pulmonem > poumon // ‘pulmão’), and rounded front ones, such as /, / (cf. filtrum > feutre // ‘feltro’; pul(i)cem > puce // ‘pulga’). The latter did not exist in the Latin vowel system; thus, they were unknown, unlike the former. In the diachronic context, this study focuses on the evolution of Latin forms bearing ‘l pinguis’, which resulted in French words with rounded vowels, either [- post] // or [+ post] //. This paper argues that one of the sources of rounded front vowels in French is the Latin sequence of vowel + lateral liquid in the medial position of the word. The explanation is provided with the support of Autosegmental Phonology, by the features that comprise the internal structure of the segments of the sequence. The corpus under study was collected in historical grammars, etymological dictionaries and historical compendia of French phonetics and phonology

Level ordering and opacity in Tetsǫ́t’ıné: a Stratal OT account

Dene (Athabaskan) verbs are widely known for their complex morphophonology. The most complex patterns are associated with two conjugation markers, /s/ and /n/, which are associated with a floating H tone to their immediate left. In this paper, we provide an analysis of /θe/ and /ɲe/, the reflexes of the /s/ and /n/ conjugations in Tetsǫ́t’ıné. Whereas previous accounts of these conjugations have relied heavily on morphological conditioning, we show that, once level ordering, autosegmental phonology and metrical phonology are brought to bear on the problem, morphological conditioning is not required. Within the framework of Stratal OT, we propose the Domain Reference Hypothesis, by which phonological constraints may only refer to morphological domains and their edges. In addition, we show that in Tetsǫ́t’ıné there is a correlation between phonological opacity and morphological structure, as predicted by the Stratal OT model.

Affrication of Voiced Labials (/B, V/) in Changana

This article describes and analyses the frication of the voiced labial consonants (/b/ and /v/) in Changana, a Bantu language (S53, in Guthrie’s 1967-1971 classification). In the light of the autosegmental phonology (Leben 1973, 1978, 2006; 1973, Goldsmith 1976, 2004; Odden 1986) combined with the Feature Geometry theory, the article discusses phonological processes that turn voiced labials into labial-alveolar affricate [bz]. In this study, we assume that the process of hiatus resolution by gliding is the trigger of the alteration under analysis. That is, when derivative suffixes with low vowel (/a/) and the high front vowel (/i/) in the initial position are attached to words with rounded vowels (/o, u/) in final position in some morphological processes such as diminutivisation and locativisation, the results are undesirable sequences (hiatus). In order to resolve such hiatus, a series of phonological processes such as the turning of the rounded vowel in the word final position into labial-velar glide allowing the adjacency of voiced labials with labial glide which violates the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) takes place. The present study analyses the OCP using empirical Changana data collected both in the fieldwork supplemented by data from other sources including bibliographical and introspective data. The article is organised as follows. Firstly, it discusses the theoretical framework; secondly it analyses the Hiatus Resolution in Changana; thirdly, it analyses the data and lastly, it presents the main conclusions of the study.

A Formal Investigation of Q-Theory in Comparison to Autosegmental Representations

We use model theory to rigorously evaluate Q-Theory as proposed in Shih and Inkelas 2019 as an alternative to Autosegmental Phonology. We find that Q-Theory is remarkably similar to Autosegmental Phonology, contra some of Shih and Inkelas's claims. In particular, Q-Theory does not eschew the association relation, in Q-Theory the tone-bearing unit is the vowel, and Q-Theory and Autosegmental Phonology are equivalent in terms of the constraints they can express. However, this formal analysis clarifies the truly novel contribution of Q-Theory, which is the empirical claim that all segments are tripartite.

Hypernasality in the Speech of Iraqi Children with Cleft Palate: A Generic Feature - Geometry Based Model

This paper is concerned with a generic feature geometry based model for phonological disorder description of hypernasality routed in the voice profiles of an Iraqi child (aged 7 years) with a cleft palate. It primarily explores the applicability of this model to the resonance hypernasalization deficit elicited in this single-case study. The preliminary findings of the treatise reveal that the subject under study has a limited linguistic competence, due to the dysfunction of the velopharyngeal valve, caused by the cleft palatology, which negatively militates his communicative skills. The most common resonance distortions resulted from this dysfunction are glottalization (25.95%), consonantal hypernasality(23.40%),vocalic hypernasality (21.019%), pharyngealisation (8.75%), labialization (7.48%), lateralization (7%), elision (4.93%), initial cluster simplification (1.11%), metathesis and vocalic shortening (0.15%), equally. Corpus analysis via manner association scheme (within the framework of Autosegmental Phonology) divulges that this model is significantly applicable to hypernasalized vowels. However, this autosegmental model fails to capture the manner co-attachment association in certain cases of vocalic and consonantal hypernasality pointing in the direction of harmonic nasality.

Denasalisation in the spoken French of Ijebu undergraduate French learners in selected universities in south West of Nigeria

Denasalisation is a lexical phenomenon brought into play during the process of lexicalisation while nasalisation is a natural process which occurs when an oral sound is modified in the environment of an adjacent nasal sound. Little attention is paid to the former because phonologists admit that nasalisation is more natural during speech production. This paper, therefore, examined denasalisation in the spoken French of 50 Ijebu Undergraduate French Learners (IUFLs) in Selected Universities in South West of Nigeria with a view to establishing instances of denasalisation in their spoken French. Data collection for this study was through tape-recording of participants’ production of 30 sentences containing French vowel and consonant sounds. Goldsmith’s Autosegmental phonology blended with distinctive feature theory was used to analyse instances of denasalisation in the data collected. The study revealed instances of denasalisation of nasal sounds at initial and final positions in the spoken French of the IUFLs.Keywords: IUFLs, Denasalisation, Autosegmental Phonology, French as Foreign language

Phonology

Phonology is the systematic study of the sounds used in language, their internal structure, and their composition into syllables, words, and phrases. Computational phonology is the application of formal and computational techniques to the representation and processing of phonological information. This chapter presents the fundamentals of phonology along with an overview of computational phonology. Fundamentals discussed include phonological features, phonemes, early generative grammar, autosegmental phonology, syllable structure, and optimality theory. Finite-state machines, attribute-value matrices, computational learning methods, and existing software toolkits round out the discussion on comptuational phonology.

An Autosegmental Analysis of Arabic Passive Participle of Triliteral Verbs

This study aims to analyze the passive participle in Standard Arabic within the framework of autosegmental phonology. It focuses on the pattern of non-derived, triliteral verbs /maCCu:C/. The sample of the study is collected from three sources Wehr (1994), Wright (1996), and Al-waSi:T Dictionary (2004). The study discusses strong, weak, geminated, and glottalized verbs using the X-skeleton of autosegmental phonology. It considers the imperfective stem as the basic form from which other forms are derived. The findings indicate that strong, geminated, and glottalized stems show regularity to the pattern /maCCu:C/. Nevertheless, irregularities from the general pattern are observed with weak verbs due to the unstable nature of glides in Standard Arabic. Also, the study shows that autosegmental phonology provides an adequate analysis for the passive participle.

Looking into Segments

This paper outlines Q theory, in which the traditional segment (consonant, vowel) is decomposed into a string of three ordered subsegments, or q, representing the onset, target, and offset of the segment. The postulation of subsegmental structure permits the representation of complex (contour) segments as well as subtle contrasts in segment-internal changes of state. Q Theory synthesizes insights from Autosegmental Phonology, Aperture Theory, and Articulatory Phonology in a representation that standard phonological constraints can refer to. Q theory is supported by arguments that subsegments act independently and need to be independently referenced by the phonological grammar. Embedded into Agreement by Correspondence Theory, Q theory permits the analysis of contour assimilation as well as contour formation, both in the tonal and segmental domains.