<OT> New Posting: ROA-962

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 962-0408

On the Syllabification of Prevocalic /w/ in Judeo-Spanish

Travis G. Bradley <tgbradley at ucdavis.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=962


Abstract:
Spanish prevocalic glides belong to the syllable nucleus
except when no less sonorous segment is available to serve
as onset (Harris 1983, Harris & Kaisse 1999, Hualde 1989,
1991). Phonological innovations in a particular group of
Judeo-Spanish dialects point to a novel generalization regarding
the labiovelar glide, namely that /w/ is realized as secondary
labialization on a preceding consonant. Evidence supporting
this structural innovation comes from an asymmetry in the
distribution of labialization. In these dialects, prevocalic
/w/ strengthens to a labialized dorsal obstruent in syllable-init
ial position but is realized as a secondary articulation
on a preceding labial or dorsal. Labialized coronals are
disallowed and show several historical reflexes depending
on the coronal's manner of articulation: nasal place assimilation
, medial vowel epenthesis, and prothesis. These innovations
are analyzed in Optimality Theory in terms of interacting
markedness and faithfulness constraints. The proposed account
has implications for the issue of possible repair strategies,
a.k.a. the 'too-many-solutions' problem.

Comments: To appear in Romance Linguistics: Structures, Interfaces, and Microparametric Variation ed. by Pascual J. Masullo, Erin O'Rourke, and Chia-Hui Huang. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Keywords: Judeo-Spanish, glides, secondary labialization, vowel epenthesis, nasal place assimilation
Areas: Phonology
Type: Book Chapter

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=962