High Vowel Deletion Research Articles

Regional variation in high vowel deletion in New Brunswick French: Preliminary observations

Regional variation in high vowel deletion in New Brunswick French: Preliminary observations

Phonological Processes of Shambaa

This study set out to describe the phonological processes of Shambaa and establish phonological rules governing the phonological processes of Shambaa. The study was done at Mlalo, Ubiri and Vuga villages found in Lushoto District Tanga Region-Tanzania. The target population of the study were adult native speakers of Shambaa. The study used a purposive sampling procedure to select 10 participants from whom data was collected through interviews, documentary review and observation. The data were presented and analyzed using phonetics and phonological rules. The findings of the study reveal that phonological processes which occur in Shambaa are glide formation, vowel lengthening, high vowel deletion, glide insertion, vowel nasalization, consonants deletion, epenthesis, voicing, homorganic nasal assimilation, aspiration and substitution. Finally, the study recommends, that other researchers conduct more research on the Shambaa language and come up with more theories and results.

Palatalization, fortition and deletion in the high vowels of Arcadian Greek

The present study discusses the status of the high vowels /i/ and (secondarily) /u/ in Arcadian Peloponnesian, an entirely unstudied variety of Greek. The high vowels of Arcadian Greek undergo different processes or are altogether deleted in an unstressed environment. In particular, unstressed [i] palatalizes or undergoes fortition (depending on the target consonant) or gets deleted. Kochetov (2016) argues that palatalization and fortition work in parallel as repair strategies in languages affecting different target consonants, so that marked C+palatal sequences are avoided. This seems to be the motivation behind the widely attested palatalization and fortition in nonstandard Greek varieties more generally, which may need to be unified under one pandialectal study in the future. Until now, high vowel deletion has been thought to be restricted to northern dialects of Greek and has constituted a defining criterion for the classification of Greek dialects in the literature.

Reconciling CV phonotactics and high vowel deletion in Japanese

High vowel devoicing is a productive process in Japanese, where /i, u/ become unphonated between voiceless obstruents. Recent studies have shown that the vowels can completely delete as a result of the process, resulting in surface consonant clusters. This seemingly conflicts with the strong CV phonotactic preference that has repeatedly been shown in both phonological and psycholinguistic studies of Japanese. This paper proposes that the apparent conflict can be resolved by having phonotactic repairs and high vowel devoicing apply at different phonological levels, adopting a more sophisticated phonological representation than simple /underlying/ vs. [surface] forms. The proposed framework also makes an empirically testable prediction regarding syllabification of clusters that result from high vowel deletion.

What motivates high vowel deletion in Québec French: Foot structure or tonal profile?

Previous studies have argued that high vowel deletion (HVD) in Québec French is constrained by iterative iambic footing (Guzzo, Goad & Garcia 2016, Garcia, Goad & Guzzo 2017; see also Verluyten 1982), since it preferentially applies in even-numbered syllables from the right edge of the word. In this paper, we compare this hypothesis with an alternative hypothesis: HVD is constrained by the optionally-realized phrase-initial H tone (Jun & Fougeron 2000, Thibault & Ouellet 1996). We report on a judgement task in which two- and four-syllable nouns with HVD in the initial syllable are placed in phrases of different profiles (No determiner, Determiner + noun, Determiner + adjective + noun). If tonal profile plays a role in HVD, HVD in four-syllable nouns in phrases where the noun is in isolation or preceded by a determiner alone should be dispreferred, since the initial syllable of the noun is assigned the optional H tone in these contexts. Our results do not confirm this: HVD is favored in four-syllable nouns over two-syllable nouns, regardless of phrase type. We explain this finding by expanding our previous proposal: HVD is regulated by foot structure, but is dispreferred when it targets the head foot (where the obligatory phrase-final prominence is realized).

Consequences of High Vowel Deletion for Syllabification in Japanese

High vowels in Japanese devoice between two voiceless consonants; recent work has shown that devoiced /u/ in this environment is also variably deleted. This paper investigates the syllabification of consonant clusters resulting from vowel deletion. We consider two competing hypotheses from the literature: (H1) that consonant clusters are parsed tautosyllabically into a complex syllable onset and (H2) that consonant clusters are parsed heterosyllabically, with the consonant preceding the deleted vowel becoming a syllabic consonant. We bring both phonological and phonetic evidence bear on evaluating these hypotheses. The phonological evidence draws on patterns sensitive to syllable structure including pitch accent placement, loanword truncation, hypocoristic formation, and mimetics. The phonetic evidence comes from patterns of temporal stability in articulatory data collected with ElectroMagnetic Articulography. Both types of evidence provide converging support for H2.

Footing is Not Always about Stress: Formalizing Variable High Vowel Deletion in Québec French

The existence of foot structure in (Québec) French is disputed, since the only position of obligatory prominence in the language is the right edge of the phonological phrase. In this paper, we propose that a segmental process, namely, high vowel deletion (HVD), supports the existence of iterative iambic footing in Québec French. We report on a judgement task with auditorily-presented stimuli in which native speakers judged whether words with and without HVD sounded natural. The results show that (i) HVD is preferred in even-numbered syllables from the right word edge, (ii) HVD is preferred when the resulting consonantal cluster mirrors an ill-formed branching onset, and (iii) although non-deletion is overall preferred to deletion, deletion is preferred in one context: when the target vowel is at a suffix boundary and in foot-dependent positions.

Assimilation and reduction in Kagoshima Japanese : An constraints on coda consonant caused by high vowel deletion

This paper examines the typology of syllable constraints from the perspectives on neutralization of laryngeal contrasts and assimilation in Kagoshima Japanese within the framework of Harmonic Serialism. Kagoshima Japanese exhibits deletion of non-initial high vowels. Word final stops and nasal caused by apocope are neutralized to placeless segments (i.e., glottal stop and uvular nasal respectively). And word internal consonant clusters (C1C2) created by syncope are assimilated or reduced depending on the combinations of consonants. If C1 is stop, there occurs assimilation or coda reduction depending on the type of C2: (i) stops entirely assimilate to following obstruents, however (ii) stops reduce to glottal stops before sonorants.BR The author analyzed these patterns of reduction and assimilation by gradual step with fixed hierarchy of anti feature spreading faithfulness elicited from P-map.

Early Old English Foot Structure

AbstractThe variable operation of high vowel deletion in Old English has long been a point of difficulty, both descriptively – a prehistoric form like *hēafudu is attested variably as hēafudu, hēafdu, and hēafod – and theoretically. Recent work, especially by Bermúdez‐Otero (2005b) and Fulk (2010), has indicated that plural forms like hēafudu are most likely original, but accounting for why the medial *u is preserved in this case form, and not in hēafde, the dative singular of the same word, has remained theoretically problematic. These difficulties arise from attempting to describe the prehistoric Old English process of high vowel deletion on the basis of later Old English phonology. At an earlier stage, the nominative‐accusative plural *hēafudu could be exhaustively parsed into two precisely bimoraic feet: *[hēa][.fu.du]. The dative singular historically ended with a long vowel, *hēafudǣ, in which the medial *u could not be accommodated within a bimoraic foot: *[hēa].fu[.dǣ]. High vowel deletion is therefore best characterized as the deletion of unfooted high vowels in early Old English, initially operating while length in unstressed vowels remained contrastive. Both this quantitative system and the preference for precisely bimoraic units receive support from Kaluza's law, an archaic metrical phenomenon in Beowulf which prohibits resolution in secondary metrical ictus if the resulting unit would have more than two moras, and which is sensitive to prehistoric length distinctions. This original system was obscured, linguistically and metrically, in later Old English by the shortening of unstressed long vowels, triggering various morphological reanalyses of the effects of high vowel deletion. A review of these changes suggests that the system of metrical phonology described here provides a more plausible starting point for the reworkings that produced the forms found in later Old English than do alternative accounts such as those of Campbell (1983) or Ringe (2002).

Vowel raising, deletion and diphthongization in Kozani Greek

This study examined three vocalic phenomena in Kozani Greek, unstressed high-vowel deletion, unstressed mid-vowel raising, and stressed mid-vowel diphthongization. Eight dialectal speakers were recorded conversing freely with a native speaker of the dialect. The results showed that high vowel deletion and mid vowel raising occurred frequently (but not always) in the corpus and were not restricted to word-final position. Stressed mid vowel diphthongization was rare. Acoustic measurements of first and second formant frequencies (F1-F2) showed that raised mid vowels /e/ and /o/ were very similar to /i/ and /u/ respectively and diphthongized /e/ and /o/ had the characteristic for diphthongs F1-F2 formant movement. Overall, the application of such vocalic phenomena in Kozani Greek resulted in an asymmetrical vowel system, especially in unstressed position.

Portuguese Lexical Clusters and CVC Sequences in Speech Perception and Production

Thi s paper investigates similarities between lexical consonant clusters and CVC sequences differing in the presence or absence of a lexical vowel in speech perception and production in two Portuguese varieties. The frequent high vowel deletion in the European variety (EP) and the realization of intervening vocalic elements between lexical clusters in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) may minimize the contrast between lexical clusters and CVC sequences in the two Portuguese varieties. In order to test this hypothesis we present a perception experiment with 72 participants and a physiological analysis of 3-dimensional movement data from 5 EP and 4 BP speakers. The perceptual results confirmed a gradual confusion of lexical clusters and CVC sequences in EP, which corresponded roughly to the gradient consonantal overlap found in production.

Vowel Deletion in Arabic Dialects of Yemen (ADY): A Linguistic Perspective

Background: Little is known about Arabic Dialects of Yemen (ADY) in comparison with other Arabic dialects and/ or varieties. The purpose of this study is to account for issues related to the distinctive features of vowel deletion in ADY, their rules, and their relationship with other dialects in the regions in light of Optimality Theory (OT). Methods: Twenty seven subjects representing most ADY were interviewed to specify in which dialect short vowels are deleted. In order to carry out the purpose of this paper, samples of pictures plus a silent movie scene/ clip were given to the subjects to describe them in their local dialects. Conclusions: The results outline that all ADY except Aden dialect delete short vowels, be it in the middle or at the end of the syllable, when they use the verb in the past form with 3rd.p.f.s.3rd.p.f.pl. and 3rd.p.m.p. There is no cause/effect relationship between vowel deletion and other process of consonants’ segmentation and/or those of syllabification. A short vowel deletion is delimited to verbs; rather, it extends to include pronouns, overt infinitive in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Whereas eastern, western, northern dialects showed high vowel deletion, central dialects, namely, Taiz dialect and parts of Ibb city showed low vowel deletion. It is also shown in this study that ADY contradicts the prediction of OT in two issues: the output and the diphthongs sounds. In response to these findings, the study proposes further positive answers based on chronological approach to questions addressed.

Allomorphy in the plural morpheme of Old English disyllabic neuter a-stem nouns: Analogy and token frequency

Allomorphy in the plural morpheme of Old English disyllabic neuter a-stem nouns: Analogy and token frequency Many instances of plural number marking in Old English disyllabic neuter a-stem nouns appear uncertain. This is due partly to a want of additional empirical evidence regarding what appears to have been a tension between a high vowel deletion process, by which some disyllabic neuters containing a long root vowel failed to attach the nominative/accusative plural number marker -u, and several analogical extension processes which resulted in irregular attachments of the plural markers -u, -ø, and others. This apparent unpredictability, however, is also due to a lack of agreement about how best to subclassify many disyllabic a-neuters. Various scholars have addressed the problem of the allomorphy at issue here, but their grouping criteria have differed and no one scheme has proven truly satisfactory (cf. Brunner - Sievers 1965; Dahl 1938; Campbell 1959; Wełna 1996). Consequently, determining which disyllabic a-neuters attached the u-plural allomorph regularly and which attached it by analogy as well as which of these neuters suffixed the ø-allomorph regularly and which did so analogically is trouble-some. In an attempt to augment our understanding of allomorphy in the plural morpheme of the Old English disyllabic neuter a-stems, this paper analyzes more than 300 plurals culled from both Early and Late Old English texts, and it proposes, unlike previous treatments, that token frequency was crucial to the analogical processes which so often determined plural marker selection in these nouns.

The roles of phonology and analogy In Old English high vowel deletion

AbstractThe problem under consideration is the exact nature of the application of High Vowel Deletion (HVD) in Old English. As discussed in §1, according to what has come to be the most prevalent view, a form such as nom.acc.pl. hēafdu‘heads’ in Late West Saxon, from earlier *hēafudu, is the phonologically regular result of the application of HVD. In §2 a recent alternative explanation is discussed, whereby *hēafudu should have produced *hēafd, which was subsequently reformed to hēafdu in West Saxon on the basis of analogy. Some initial difficulties that confront this latter explanation are discussed. The earlier analysis of Eduard Sievers maintains that neither of these analyses is correct, and that hēafudu, one of the forms actually attested in early texts, including the Vespasian Psalter, represents the purely phonological result of HVD, which applies vacuously to this form. Evidence is adduced in §3 demonstrating that the treatment of the phonological results of HVD in interrelated declensional categories in the dialect of the Vespasian Psalter are preserved with impressive conservatism, evincing little or no analogical disruption. This conclusion lends strong support to Sievers’ analysis of forms like hēafudu and renders it extremely improbable that West Saxon hēafdu can be anything but an analogical creation or that the proposed *hēafd could ever have existed. In §4 a rationale is offered for the changes, analogical or otherwise, that must be assumed for West Saxon in forms like hēafdu, as well as in ja‐stem neuter nouns with plurals like rīċu, wītu, along with feminine nouns in Germanic *‐iþō, such as and .

OLD ENGLISH STRESS, HIGH VOWEL DELETION AND GEMINATION: TWO PROSODIC PLANE THEORY

An attempt will be made to analyze OE stress, High Vowel Deletion (HVD) and Gemination in the framework of ‘Two Prosodic Plane Theory’ in which the syllable plane and the grid plane are separately represented. On the grid plane, grid constituent structures which represent stress contours are constructed by means of the mechanisms to be proposed. It will become clear that grid transformations (X(=grid)‐delinkings) are involved with both HVD and Gemination. The principles of grid transformation, i. e. the Head Grid Principle and the Minimal Foot Principle (in particular) will play an important role in explaining these phonological processes.

On the 1 sg. Pres. Ind. Ending -u and High Vowel Deletion in Anglian and Other West Germanic Languages

Article On the 1 sg. Pres. Ind. Ending -u and High Vowel Deletion in Anglian and Other West Germanic Languages was published on December 31, 1988 in the journal Indogermanische Forschungen (volume 93, issue 1988).