Monophthongisation and Vowel Lengthening in Educated Ibibio English

The major preoccupation of this paper is to study monophthongisation and vowel lengthening in Educated Ibibio English with a view to explaining the lengthening of vowels in final open stressed syllables. Educated Ibibio English (here after EIE) is an ethnic variety of Nigerian English spoken by literate home-grown Ibibio people in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Monophthongisation is a phonological process whereby one of two vowel elements of a diphthong, usually the second (offset) element, is deleted, leaving the stranded stressed (onset) to be lengthened, if found in final open, stressed syllable. Related works on EIE segments indicate that some Standard British English (SBE) closing diphthongs /?u/ and /ei/ tend to monophthongise to /e/ and /o/, respectively. The study employs the Moraic Theory of Hyman and Hayes which main argument is that the syllable contains neither onset or a rhyme. Rather, every syllable contains one or more Mora. Also, a Speech Filling System (SFS/WASP) Computerized Speech Laboratory was used to interpret Fo curve structure and acoustic duration in order to corroborate findings from perceptual analysis. The study establishes the fact that the monophthongised diphthongs were lengthened becuaseof the need to preserve the weight of the deleted /u/ and /i/ in SBE /ei/ and /??/ diphthongs and also to reflect components of the failing fundamental frequency (Fo) contour of English fnal open syllable.

Moraic coda sonority in Chilean Spanish

This paper discusses coda lenition phenomena in Chilean Spanish, seeking to create a unified analysis for coda obstruent gliding and /s/-reduction. The paper invokes Moraic Theory to motivate lenition of certain segments in coda position. Using Harmonic Serialism, a serial variant of Optimality Theory, Chilean Spanish is shown to have a minimum sonority requirement on coda segments, and lenites insufficiently sonorous segments. /s/ is shown to place-delete to [h] to avoid sonority restrictions. The lack of /ʔ/ causes obstruents to diverge their derivation from that of /s/. Lenition to glottal segments is preferred, but gliding occurs if this is impossible.

Hääliku-, silbi- ning jalavälde: ühe nähtuse mitu tahku

Eesti väldete fonoloogiline esitus on huvi pakkunud väga paljudele teadlastele ja olnud inspiratsiooniks fonoloogiateooria arendamisel. Artiklis võrdlen erinevaid moorateoreetilisi vältekäsitlusi väldete foneetilise kirjeldusega. Foneetiliste faktidega sobib kõige paremini käsitlus, mille järgi III välte rõhuline silp täidab kogu jala, kuid I ja II välte puhul koosneb jalg kahest silbist. III välte silbi lõpu ja I välte jala lõpu pikenemist seletab prominentse moora paiknemine nimetatud positsioonides. Prominentsed moorad on vajalikud ka isuri keele Soikola murde fonoloogilises kirjelduses.Abstract. Külli Prillop: Segment quantity, syllable quantity and foot quantity – different facets of one phenomenon. Phonological representation of Estonian quantity degrees have aroused the interest of many researchers and provided a stimulus for developing phonological theory. In this article, I compare various moraic representations of the quantity degrees with the phonetical description of the quantities. Phonetical facts show best compatibility with the treatment according to which the stressed syllable of Q3 fills the whole foot, whereas in the case of Q1 and Q2 the foot consists of two syllables. The syllable-final lengthening of Q3 and the foot-final lengthening of Q1 can be explained by the presence of the strong mora in the corresponding positions. I show that strong moras are also necessary for the phonological description of the Soikola Ingrian.Keywords: Estonian, Ingrian, Soikola, quantity, overlength, foot-final lengthening, strong mora, moraic theory

Geminates and Weight in Amharic

<p>Moraic Theory (Hayes 1989) predicts the existence of a language that classifies CVC syllables as light and syllables with a geminate coda (CVG) as heavy. Until now, no such language has been attested (Tranel 1991; Davis 2011). We propose that Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia, fits this pattern. Using data collected through eight months of fieldwork with two Amharic speakers, we demonstrate that two independent processes of the language, stress and reduplication, serve as evidence that geminate codas but not other codas are moraic in Amharic.</p>

Thomas Campion’s iambic and quantitative Sapphic: Further evidence for phonological weight in Elizabethan English quantitative and non-quantitative meters

Fulfilling a central goal of a generation of Elizabethan English metrical theory often referred to as the ‘quantitative movement’, Thomas Campion succeeded in demonstrating the role of syllable quantity, or phonological weight, in Elizabethan iambic pentameter. Following Kristin Hanson (2001, 2006), this article parses Campion’s scansions of Early Modern English syllables, according to moraic theory, into resolved moraic trochees. The analysis demonstrates that (1) Campion distinguished between syllable weight (syllable quantity) and stress or strength (accent) in Early Modern English; (2) Campion prohibited syllabic consonants in English iambic pentameter, despite the fact that they were attested in Early Modern English as a whole; (3) in a successful adaptation of the Latin rule of ‘position’, as described by William Lily and John Colet’s Short Introduction of Grammar (1567), Campion re-syllabified coda consonants followed by vowels; and (4) Campion employed syllabic elision as a means of avoiding pyrrhic syllable combinations that resulted in non-maximal filling of long positions in a line of English iambic pentameter. His two iambic pentameters – the ‘pure’ and the ‘licentiate’ – are both accentual and quantitative meters that, in accordance with moraic theory, integrate stress and strength with syllable weight. He contrasted stress and weight in the quantitative Sapphic lyric ‘Come let us sound with melodie’ (Campion, 1601). Hanson’s (2001, 2006) reconsideration of the role of syllable quantity in Elizabethan metrical theory and Elizabethan poetry should be continued.

An analysis of North Saami gradation

This paper gives a moraic analysis of gemination and laryngeal alternations associated with consonant gradation in North Saami. Gradation gives rise to a surface three-way length distinction in consonants, which is essential to understanding length in vowels and diphthongs. It is explained by a system of prosodic rules applying to underlying representations containing only a two-way contrast between geminate and singleton consonants, plus a floating mora present in certain suffixes, which results in surface alternations between extra-long and long or between long and short consonants. An enlightening explanation of quantity alternations is available if one exploits the possibility implicit in moraic theory that the relationship between segments and moras can be surface-contrastive, and we show that recourse to trimoraic syllables is unnecessary, despite the surface three-way length difference. These prosodic alternations also result in shifts in the timing of preaspiration and preglottalisation, as well as loss of these laryngeal specifications.

A (not so) paradoxical instance of compensatory lengthening: Samothraki Greek and theoretical implications

Samothraki Greek onset-/r/ deletion with subsequent compensatory lengthening (CL) of the following vowel poses two major problems for current phonological theory. First, such a pattern should be impossible because in moraic theory onsets never bear weight, thus — under the assumption that CL is all about mora conservation (cf. Hayes 1989 and several others) — their deletion should not induce lengthening. Second, CL is an instance of opacity, and opacity is the single biggest conundrum that Optimality Theory faces. This paper addresses both issues and suggests that CL should not be treated as mora conservation, but instead as position preservation through the presence of a mora. This move sidesteps the previous problems as no reference to the input moraicity of segments is required and consequently, onsets, like codas, can cause CL. Moreover, concerns about OT’s parallelism, single input-output mapping, and Richness of the Base are taken into account ensuring that the resulting analysis observes all of them. The proposed solution neatly accounts for a number of CL cases and is successfully implemented in Samothraki Greek, an elaborate analysis of which is offered to capture the full range of facts.

On the theoretical implications of Cypriot Greek initial geminates

Cypriot Greek contrasts singleton and geminate consonants in word-initial position. These segments are of particular interest to phonologists since two divergent representational frameworks, moraic theory (Hayes 1989) and timing-based frameworks, including CV or X-slot theory (Clements and Keyser 1983, Levin 1985), account for the behavior of initial geminates in substantially different ways. The investigation of geminates in Cypriot Greek allows these differences to be explored. As will be demonstrated in a formal analysis of the facts, the patterning of geminates in Cypriot is best accounted for by assuming that the segments are dominated by abstract timing units such as X- or C-slots, rather than by a unit of prosodic weight such as the mora.

Syllable onsets as a factor in stress rules: the case of Mathimathi revisited

Theories of stress assignment commonly assume that syllable onsets do not determine a syllable's ability to attract stress. In the frameworks of McCarthy (1979) and Hayes (1981, 1995), for example, only the rhyme is projected in order to determine the weight of a syllable. In Moraic Theory (Hyman 1985), onsets do not contribute to the weight of a syllable as a consequence of the Onset Creation rule, by which onsets lose their weightbearing unit. In the framework of Hayes (1989), the rule of Weight-by-Position ensures that only coda consonants can ever be weight-bearing.