Bavarian German <i>r</i>-Flapping: Evidence for a dialect-specific sonority hierarchy

Abstract

In certain varieties of Bavarian German, where both liquids vocalize in the syllable coda, word-final sequences of /ʀl/ are realized with a flapped r as the onset to a syllable with nuclear syllabic l ([l̩]). In this article, I discuss one such variety of Bavarian German, presenting data and analysis of Bavarian German Flapping, as well as Liquid Vocalization. This paper argues that Bavarian German Flapping repairs a sonority plateau created by adjacent liquids; it is shown that Bavarian German necessitates its own unique sonority hierarchy, as opposed to one German-specific hierarchy (cf. Wiese 1996) or a universal hierarchy (cf. Parker 2008; 2011). There are several theoretical contributions of this paper: first, I show that in languages, such as Bavarian German, where two or more rhotics behave differently in terms of sonority, the language’s sonority hierarchy must divide the class of liquids, specifically placing trills and flaps at different levels of sonority; I propose such a sonority hierarchy for Bavarian German. Additionally, this analysis engages with research on sonority which promotes universal sonority hierarchies determined via phonetics (cf. Parker 2008; 2011); the current analysis argues that such a universal sonority hierarchy cannot account for the Bavarian German data (i.e. Flapping). Finally, with the proposed dialect-specific sonority hierarchy, it is argued that sonority is emergent and not universal. While emergence has been widely discussed in particularly phonological and morpho-phonological literature (see Mielke 2008; Archangeli & Pulleyblank 2016), it has not been extended specifically to phonological sonority; thus, this is a central contribution of the article.