<OT> New Posting: ROA-839

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 839-0606

An Optimality Theoretic Approach to Variable Consonantal Alternations in Qatari Arabic

Eiman Mustafawi <emust021 at uottawa.ca>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=839


Abstract:
This thesis investigates two variable phonological processes
exhibited in Qatari Arabic (QA). One is the affrication
of the velar stops [k] and [g] to [tS] and [dZ], a process
that has been traditionally assumed to be triggered by adjacency
to a front vowel. The other alternation concerns the lenition
of /dZ/ to [j], taken to be phonetically unconditioned.
Previous studies, however, recognize the existence of a
large number of exceptions to these processes.


By reconsidering the data in the light of new advancements
in phonological theory, affrication and lenition are analyzed
as regular processes, and cases that were previously considered
to be exceptions to affrication and lenition are accounted
for. First I argue for the inclusion of the segments /g/
and /tS/, which are traditionally assumed to derive from
an underlying /q/ and /k/, respectively, in the phonemic
inventory of QA. I find that affrication can be triggered
only by adjacency to [i(:)], to the exclusion of any other
segment, within the stem. Also, affrication interacts with
pharyngealization, a process that retracts/lowers vowels
in a certain domain and removes the required context for
affrication to apply. Lenition is argued not to be context-free,
as it is blocked in coda position preceded by a non-low
vowel, as well as in geminates. Exceptions to lenition are
accounted for by employing the notion of prespecification/undersp
ecification. Both processes are subject to OCP restrictions
and paradigmatic effects.


Typologically, the current study adds QA to the small list
of languages in which lenition of an obstruent to a glide
applies. It also discusses a unique case of interaction
between variation and paradigmatic effects, and it provides
evidence for the necessity of the OP model (McCarthy, 2005)
in addition to regular OO-faithfulness constraints. This
study suggests that the OCP is a synchronically active constraint
in Arabic which restricts segmental alternations, in addition
to restricting static patterns of phonological representation.


The discussion is based on a large amount of data, systematically
extracted from a local dictionary and complemented by additional
forms provided by the author. The analysis is cast in an
optimality theoretic (OT) framework (Prince & Smolensky,
2004), which holds that linguistic forms are the outcome
of the interaction among violable universal constraints,
and in OT's recent development into a model that accounts
for linguistic variation.

Comments: 
Keywords: Qatari Arabic, variation, affrication, lenition, paradigm uniformity, Optimal Paradigms, pharyngealization, OCP, underspecification
Areas: Phonology
Type: PhD Dissertation

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=839