Syllable Margins Research Articles

On the PIE root-structure constraint prohibiting repeated consonants

This paper confronts and resolves the problem of apparent exceptions to the constraint prohibiting the co-occurrence of identical consonants in both syllable margins of the PIE root: schematically, †… Ci … E … Ci …, where † indicates the prohibition of the root structure following it, Ci = the identical consonant, E = the ablauting vowel, and … = optional additional consonants in the syllable margins. In advancement of previous work addressing this problem — most recently exemplified in Cooper (2009), Corbeau (2013) and Weiss (2020) — it eliminates several potential exceptions to the constraint and proposes that, once a cross-linguistic absence-of-contrast principle is taken into account which determines the relation of laryngeal features (glottalization, aspiration, and voicing) to the syllable margins that contain them, no clear-cut exceptions remain.

An optimality-theoretic account of syllable restructuring in Early Bislama

The paper looks at syllable restructuring in Early Bislama. The analysis is couched in the framework of Optimality Theory. The empirical evidence considered is from a corpus of pre-World War II records of Early Bislama, covering a period ranging from 1867 to 1935. It is shown that Early Bislama tends to disallow complex syllable margins and employs mostly vowel epenthesis and, to a lesser extent, consonant deletion as repair strategies for the resolution of etymological onset and coda clusters. Also discussed are the quality of the epenthetic vowels (minimally marked vs. contextually coloured), and the relevance of Early Bislama to the transformations undergone by otherwise stable features of English syllable structure.

On the link between onset clusters and codas in Mbat (Jarawan Bantu)

This paper explores morphologically-conditioned alternations in Mbat (Jarawan Bantu) verb stems. Some inflectional affixation in Mbat results in resyllabification. The singleton coda of a CGVC verb stem will become the onset of a new syllable following the addition of a vowel-initial suffix (e.g., Perfective -am). What is surprising is that this, in turn, triggers onset simplification in the stem itself (i.e., CV.C-am). Adding further complexity to Mbat is that these alternations are limited to verb stems containing mid vowels. Stems with low vowels retain their pre-vocalic glide upon suffixation (i.e., CGV.C-am). These outcomes have implications for at least two contemporary lines of inquiry in phonological theory: i) the prosodification and behavior of pre-vocalic glides, and ii) the formal connection between so-called M2 syllable margin positions (i.e., the second member of a complex onset and the sole member of a singleton coda). I illustrate that Mbat has something to contribute to current perspectives on both these fronts. In addition to the theoretical and typological contributions entailed herein, this paper is also significant in that it is the first formal linguistic study of a Jarawan Bantu language, a cluster of languages spoken primarily in eastern Nigeria.

Glide strengthening in Atayal: sonority dispersion and similarity avoidance

This paper documents and analyzes the alternations between glides and fricatives in Atayal, an endangered Austronesian language spoken in northern Taiwan. Distributional gaps and morphophonological alternations suggest that onset glides in the Jianshi variety of Squliq Atayal do not appear before a schwa or a homorganic vowel. The paper argues that the restrictions on onset glides are motivated by the needs to achieve an optimal sonority profile within a syllable and to avoid homorganic glide-vowel sequences. In the proposed OT account, sonority dispersion and similarity avoidance are formalized as separate constraints, which is supported by the attested typology across Atayal dialects. The strengthening data justify the placement of schwa lower in the sonority hierarchy than high vowels, and the adopted conjoined constraints further suggest that sonority-based co-occurrence restrictions are not necessarily restricted to syllable margins (cf. Steriade in Language 64:118–129, 1988a). The paper also shows that (1) the behavior of j and w is asymmetrical in some dialects, with w combining more freely with the following nucleus vowel than j does; and (2) Atayal phonemic /w/ primarily alternates with velar [ɣ], which is peculiar among Formosan languages. The fact that Atayal consonantal w strengthens to velar [ɣ] instead of a labial falsifies the feature theories in which /w/ is characterized only by the [Labial] articulator (Halle et al. in Linguist Inq 31:387–444, 2000; Halle in Linguist Inq 36: 23–41, 2005; Levi in The representation of underlying glides: a cross-linguistic study, 2004; Lingua 118:1956–1978, 2008).

Articulatory characterization of English liquid-final rimes

Articulation of liquid consonants in onsets and codas by four speakers of General American English was examined using real-time MRI. Midsagittal tongue posture was compared for laterals and rhotics produced in each syllable margin, adjacent to 13 different vowels and diphthongs. Vowel articulation was examined in words without liquids, before each liquid, and after each liquid, to assess the coarticulatory influence of each segment on the others. Overall, nuclear vocalic postures were more influenced by coda rhotics than onset rhotics or laterals in either syllable margin. Laterals exhibited greater temporal and spatial independence between coronal and dorsal gestures. Rhotics were produced with a variety of speaker-specific postures, but were united by a greater degree of coarticulatory resistance to vowel context, patterns consistent with greater coarticulatory influence on adjacent vowels, and less allophonic variation across syllable positions than laterals.

Syllable structure and complex onsets in Modern Hebrew

Abstract Modern Hebrew allows for a diverse variety of syllable structures, allowing syllables with codas, onsetless syllables, and complex syllable margins. Syllables with a complex onset are found in word initial position, mostly in nouns, and syllables with a complex coda are less common. In this paper, we provide the distribution of syllable types in Modern Hebrew, noting differences between verbs and nouns, native words and loanwords, as well as differences among positions within the word. Special attention is given to word initial complex onsets, with details regarding the restrictions governing consonant combinations.

On branching onsets in Norwegian

Syllable margins and the phonotactic peculiarities of word-edges have always drawn attention of researches working within different theoretical approaches. In the following paper some Norwegian consonantal clusters will be examined, with special reference to the left-margin of the words. Our attention will be focused on establishing the set of possible branching onsets in Norwegian, both word-initially and in the word-internal position.

On the role of margin phonotactics in Colloquial Bamana complex syllables

Data from two closely related varieties of Bamana (Bambara), a Mande language spoken in West Africa, reveal that these varieties differ significantly from one another in terms of the syllable shapes they permit in their inventories. A comparison of normative ‘standard’ Bamana and that spoken by a young cohort of individuals in the Malian capital, Bamako, reveals that the latter colloquial variety has synchronically developed complex CCV and CVC syllable shapes, while the normative variety permits only maximal CV syllables. We posit that this development of complex syllable shapes in Colloquial Bamana is a result of an overall drive towards word minimization in the language and that the language’s chosen trajectory of minimization is predicted and best analyzed in reference to the Split Margin Approach to the syllable (e.g., Baertsch 2002). This paper formalizes Colloquial Bamana in an optimality-theoretic framework and details preferential vowel and consonant deletion patterns that create complex syllable shapes, the role of syllable margin phonotactics in driving these patterns, and other important phonological characteristics of the language that interact with and/or prevent minimization from occurring.

The Typology of PIE Syllabic Sonorants

One of the most prominent features of reconstructed PIE phonology is sonorant syllabicity: sonorant consonants function as syllable peaks when, generally speaking, they are not adjacent to a vowel. The general acceptance of this phenomenon in its various contours has persisted (see e.g. Mayrhofer 1986, Fortson 2009, Meier-Brügger 2010, Weiss 2011, etc.), despite the absence, for the most part, of any attempt to ascertain its credibility along the cross-linguistic dimension. In this paper, we evaluate the reconstructed PIE system from precisely this perspective. In comparing the established properties of PIE syllabic sonorants—including their distribution across words and morphemes, the complexity of their syllable margins, their participation in prosodic phenomena, their morphophonological alternation, and the directionality of their vocalization—against a survey of syllabic consonants across the languages of the world, we demonstrate the typological plausibility of the reconstruction, and so reinforce the confidence with which it has been maintained.

Russian intervocalic deletion in Derivational Optimality Theory

The article addresses issues connected with the deletion of the glide j in intervocalic contexts and the distribution of the sequences ji and ij in Russian. It has been assumed in generative phonology that the surface distinction between glides and vowels is not encoded in the lexicon, but, rather, is a result of syllabification rules, which ensure that the underlying high vowel is realised as a glide in syllable margins. At first glance, it appears that Russian glides eschew such an analysis, as both [ij] and [ji] sequences are found on the surface and it is unclear which underlying //i// should be turned into a glide. However, the present paper demonstrates that the distribution of high vowel i and the glide j is systematic and there is no need to prespecify j in the lexicon. The basic generalisation is that both the occurrence of the glide in onset or coda position and the deletion of the glide intervocalically are conditioned by the presence of an underlying fleeting vowel, the so-called yer.

Glides and gemination

For some linguists, rapid articulatory movement and short duration are essential attributes of vocalic glides (or ‘semivowels’). Others define them by structural properties, sometimes coupled with occurrence at a syllable margin. But brevity and rapid movement cannot be inherent properties of the class. A survey of 45 languages with geminates shows that although semivowels are among the less-favored candidates for gemination nonetheless a substantial number of languages, including Amharic, Northern Sierra Miwok, Marshallese, Leggbo and Tamazight, permit them to participate in singleton/geminate contrasts. Evidently geminates are inherently not brief or transitional. It might be thought that the geminate counterparts of singleton glides belong to a different phonetic or phonological category (e.g. fricatives). However, in several cases the clear phonological relatedness of the singleton and geminate semivowels can be demonstrated and in a final section the similarity between singleton and geminate semivowels in amplitude and formant frequencies in Trique is illustrated.

Jette G. Hansen: Acquiring a Non-Native Phonology. Linguistic Constraints and Social Barriers.

Jette G. Hansen: Acquiring a Non-Native Phonology. Linguistic Constraints and Social Barriers.

Syllabification in Finnish and German: Onset filling vs. onset maximization

The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate the syllabification of a selection of medial two- and three-consonant clusters in Finnish and German. Increasing-sonority clusters (e.g.,/tr/) were found to be tautosyllabified in German but heterosyllabified in Finnish. In three-member clusters such as /lst/, the lateral was assigned to the prior syllable and the obstruents to the subsequent syllable in German, whereas the /l/ and the /s/ were assigned to the prior syllable and the stop to the subsequent syllable in Finnish. These results are interpreted in terms of an onset maximization strategy in German and an onset-filling strategy in Finnish. The explanation proposed is based on three claims: the structural analogy between word margins and syllable margins, the unequal strength of onsets and codas, and the sensitivity to frequency. Finnish has too few word onset clusters to develop an onset maximization tendency. Therefore, only one constituent of a cluster is associated with an onset position and the other constituents are linked with coda sites. By contrast, German has enough word onset clusters to support a maximum number of consonants in syllable onset positions.

A new approach to an old problem: Gemination and constraint reranking in West Germanic

This paper presents an Optimality Theoretic (Prince and Smolensky1993; McCarthy and Prince 1995) analysis of diachronic phonological change as the reranking of violable constraints, taking thee mergence of word-medial geminates in West Germanic as a case study. West Germanic is characterized by, among other things, the gemination of all consonants – except *r – after a short vowel and before *j (Gmc. *skapjan > OS skeppian, OE scieppan vs. Got. skapjan, ON skepja ’tocreate‘) and the gemination of voiceless stops before *r and*l (*akr- > OHG akkar, OS akkar vs. Got. akrs, ON akr ’field‘). Evidence from versification and word division in original documents suggests that all Germanic dialects favored bimoraic stressed syllables, syllabifying *skapjan as *skap.jan, for example. This often resulted in faulty syllable contacts in which the coda consonant was less sonorous than the following onset. Murray and Vennemann (1983) propose that geminates arose in order to repair such faulty syllable contacts (e.g., *skap.jan > *skap.pjan),but their analysis fails to satisfactorily account for the full scope of the West Germanic Gemination. I propose here that while gemination before *r and *l was driven by unfavorable sonority differences at syllable margins, the more pervasive appearance of geminates before *j simply resulted from a well-attested Germanic dispreference for *j in onset-initial position.

Sonority constraints on syllable structure

One of the crucial ways in which prosodic structure governs the distribution of segments is in terms of sonority. By taking into account what is known′ as the sonority of segments, their arrangement within the syllable follows a clear pattern: the most sonorous segment occupies the peak position, while the less sonorous ones occur towards the margins, as observed in a wide range of literature (Jespersen 1904; Saussure 1916; Zwicky 1972; Hooper 1976; Kiparsky 1979, 1981; Lowenstamm 1981; Steriade 1982; Selkirk 1984; Clements 1990). This specific arrangement of segments within the syllable has been attributed in the previous literature to the principle of sonority sequencing, which relegates segments low in sonority towards syllable margins (see Hooper 1976; Kiparsky 1979, 1981; Steriade 1982; Selkirk 1984; Levin 1985; Clements 1990).

Accent-bearing units

This paper presents acoustic evidence for the nature of accent-bearing units in American English. The interactive effects of accent and syllable affiliation on consonant duration were examined to see if the effect of accent on syllable margins depends on their syllable affiliation. Results show a greater effect of accent on syllable onsets than on syllable codas. Although the nature of the rime is known to influence the location of stress placement in English, the findings presented here suggest that the entire syllable, rather than the nucleus or rime, is the accent-bearing unit. [Work supported by NIH Grant Nos. R01DC00219 and T32-DC00036 to SUNY at Buffalo.]