Abstract

The rhotic or "r-like sound" of Standard European French is a segment varying in manner, both degree of aperture and voice quality. This paper presents a broadly functional analysis of /ᴚ/ voicing within an Optimality Theoretic framework, accounting for instances of voice assimilation, neutralization and apparent free variation. Autosegmental analysis of /ᴚ/ voice alternation is critiqued based on its inability to account for voice patterns. A lenition-based approach, taking into account active and passive voicing mechanisms, is proposed, from which alternations between voiced and voiceless /ᴚ/ are seen as the result of principled phonological processes involving effort avoidance and reduction. This analysis supports a representation of /ᴚ/ that is unspecified for active glottal control; essentially, the output or surface instantiation of /ᴚ/ derives from its phonological environment, as constrained by universal principles of effort reduction or avoidance. These principles are articulated in grounded constraints LAZY(glot), targeting glottal or laryngeal effort. Other issues raised include the integration of phonetic principles in phonological explanation, the justification for input or underlying representations of variant phonemes and the heuristic capabilities of proposed constraints. A concluding section comprises a discussion of the data and the conception of voice as a phonological category.

Highlights

  • Standard European French /‰/ has not enjoyed a great deal of attention in phonological literature, especially with regard to surface variations.1 Approximant-fricative and voicedvoiceless manifestations are discussed only cursorily, if at all, in the majority of works on French phonology

  • The description and explanation presented here promotes a view of /‰/ voicing as one instance of passive lenition

  • This approach accounts for voice variation as the outcome of effort reduction where no input, representational variables are present to counter active voicing or voicelessness

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Summary

Introduction

Standard European French /‰/ has not enjoyed a great deal of attention in phonological literature, especially with regard to surface variations. Approximant-fricative and voicedvoiceless manifestations are discussed only cursorily, if at all, in the majority of works on French phonology. While there is general agreement in the phonological literature as to the contrast between voiced and voiceless /‰/ in licensed clusters (i.e., CRV or VRC), the occurrence of this segment in extra-syllabic (VCR) and in simple onsets and codas (RV and VR) is treated distinctly by different authors (e.g., Tranel 1987: 142-143; Walter 1977: 36; Walker 2001: 136-139). Synthesis of these data is presented in (1), below. These rules succeed in describing the phenomenon of voicing specific to /‰/, but do little to promote an explanation of this behavior, nor to further understanding of voicing in general

Autosegmental voice assimilation and neutralization
Voicing as passive lenition
Passive lenition and co-optimality in OT
Conclusion
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