Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:43:26.895Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Laryngeal assimilation in Buchan Scots1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2010

ISLAM YOUSSEF
ISLAM YOUSSEF*
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics, University of Tromsø, NO - 9037 Tromsø, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Buchan Scots exhibits a unique phonological process in which mid vowels undergo raising that is triggered by both voiced consonants and stressed high vowels. The fact that the triggers of assimilation do not fall neatly into a single natural class under most feature theories makes it an interesting challenge to straightforward analysis. Given the phonological patterns and a variety of phonetic facts about Buchan, I propose a [Lowered Larynx] feature to explain both vowel height and consonant voicing in this language. I present an autosegmental analysis of the segment inventory and phonological patterns in the framework of the Parallel Structures Model of feature geometry (Morén 2003, 2006, 2007). This analysis provides a unified and minimal account of the assimilation facts and supports the claim that phonological activity is dependent on the structure of the contrast system of a given language (Dresher, Piggot & Rice 1994). Furthermore, the representational analysis fits neatly into a constraint-based model and contributes to the growing body of literature claiming that representations are important even to optimality-theoretic analyses.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 321 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akinlabi, Akinbiyi. 1994. Alignment constraints in ATR harmony. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 24 (1), 1–18.Google Scholar
Anderson, John & Ewen, Colin. 1987. Principles of dependency phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, Peter. 1996. The representation of voicing contrasts. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Beckman, Jill. 1998. Positional faithfulness. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts. [ROA 234].Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam & Halle, Morris. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Clements, George N. 1991. Place of articulation in consonants and vowels: A unified theory. Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory 5, 77–123.Google Scholar
Clements, George N. & Hume, Elizabeth V.. 1995. The internal organization of segments. In Goldsmith, John (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory, 245–306. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dieth, Eugen. 1932. A grammar of the Buchan dialect (Aberdeenshire): Descriptive and historical. Cambridge: Heffer.Google Scholar
Dresher, B. Elan, Piggott, Glyne & Rice, Keren. 1994. Contrast in phonology: Overview. In Dyck, Carrie (ed.), Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 13 (1), 3–17.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Colleen M. 2002. Vowel harmony in Buchan Scots English. English Language and Linguistics 6, 61–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, John A. 1976. Autosegmental phonology. PhD dissertation, MIT. Circulated by IULC, Bloomington, IN.Google Scholar
Harris, John & Lindsey, Geoff. 1995. The elements of phonological representation. In Durand, Jacques & Katamba, Francis (eds.), Frontiers of phonology: Atoms, structures, derivations, 34–79. Harlow, Essex: Longman.Google Scholar
Jansen, Wouter. 2007. Phonological ‘voicing’, phonetic voicing, and assimilation in English. Language Sciences 29 (special issue, ed. Philip Carr & Patrick Honeybone), 270–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kager, René. 1999. Optimality Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenstowicz, Michael. 1994. Phonology in generative grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kohler, Klaus J. 1984. Phonetic explanation in phonology: The feature fortis/lenis. Phonetica 41, 150–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCarthy, John J. & Prince, Alan. 1993. Generalized alignment. Yearbook of Morphology 1993, 79–154.Google Scholar
Morén, Bruce. 2001. Distinctiveness, coercion and sonority: A unified theory of weight. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morén, Bruce. 2003. The Parallel Structures Model of feature geometry. Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Lab 15, 194–270.Google Scholar
Morén, Bruce. 2006. Consonant-vowel interactions in Serbian: Features, representations and constraint interactions. Lingua 116 (8), 1198–1244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morén, Bruce. 2007. The division of labor between segment-internal structure and violable constraints. In Blaho, Silvia, Bye, Patrick & Krämer, Martin (eds.), Freedom of analysis? Berlin and New York: Mouton De Gruyter. [ROA 845].Google Scholar
Paster, Mary. 2004. Vowel height harmony and blocking in Buchan Scots. Phonology 21, 359–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prince, Alan & Smolensky, Paul. 1993/2004. Optimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. MS, Rutgers University and University of Colorado/Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Trigo, Loren. 1986. Voicing and pharyngeal expansion: ATR harmony in Buchan and Madurese. MS, MIT.Google Scholar
Trigo, Loren. 1991. On pharynx-larynx interactions. Phonology 8, 113–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaux, Bert. 1993. Is ATR a laryngeal feature? Presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Los Angeles (8 Jan 1993).Google Scholar
Wölck, Wolfgang. 1965. Phonematische Analyse der Sprache von Buchan. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar