<OT> New Posting: ROA-583

[roa@ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 583-0203

Vowel Reduction in Russian:  A Unified Account of Standard,
Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns

Katherine Crosswhite <crosswhi@ling.rochester.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=583


Abstract:
This paper provides an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of
a number of Russian
vowel reduction patterns relying on a non-unitary approach
to two-pattern
reduction systems.


Furthermore, under this analysis a particularly complex
dialectal reduction
pattern, traditionally referred to as 'dissimilative' reduction,
is analyzed
without use of direct featural dissimilation.  Instead,
constraints on
sonority, foot form, and lengthening under stress conspire
to allow the
quality of the stressed vowel to indirectly affect the reduction
of the
preceding unstressed vowel.  The key insight involves the
idea that more
sonorous vowels can lengthen under stress more easily than
less sonorous ones.

Keywords: vowel reduction, sonority, moraicity, Russian,
dissimilation

Areas: Phonology

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=583