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Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages
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Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 8103

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Irene Vogel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
Interests: phonology; prosody; phonetics; morphology
Dr. Laura Spinu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Communications & Performing Arts, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
Interests: phonetics; phonology; speech perception and production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are guest editing a special volume of Languages to be entitled "Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages".  As the subject line suggests, we are writing to inquire whether you would be interested in contributing an original research paper pertaining to the topic indicated by the title.

While there are a number of books and publications pertaining to the linguistic study of Romance languages, there tends to be an under-representation of contributions focusing specifically on their phonetic and phonological properties and structures. The present volume will address this concern, bringing together original research papers on any Romance language/s that address phonological and/or phonetic issues.

As indicated in the title of the volume, we are especially interested in contributions that highlight issues of complexity - which may be interpreted as phenomena that are indeed complex, or phenomena that might seem complex but that may actually turn out to be quite straight-forward when analyzed in a particular way. These may be addressed from theoretical and/or experimental perspectives.

In order to permit us to advance the plans for the volume, we request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit an email to guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) expressing interest with a tentative title and 2-3 sentences about the topic, and subsequently, the proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution, along with a list of the references appearing in your text. The references and any figures may appear on a separate page and do not contribute to the word count. Please send your abstract to the guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Prof. Dr. Irene Vogel
Dr. Laura Spinu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • linguistic complexity
  • phonetics
  • phonology
  • Romance linguistics
 

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 6778 KiB  
Article
Phonetic Diversity vs. Sociolinguistic and Phonological Patterning of R in Québec French
by Mathilde Hutin and Mélanie Lancien
Languages 2024, 9(11), 338; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9110338 - 29 Oct 2024
Viewed by 740
Abstract
In this study, we investigate the multifaceted realizations of the /R/ consonant in Québec French (QF) by combining sociolinguistic and phonological approaches. First, from a sociophonetic point of view, we utilize a mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression model to analyze the impact of various [...] Read more.
In this study, we investigate the multifaceted realizations of the /R/ consonant in Québec French (QF) by combining sociolinguistic and phonological approaches. First, from a sociophonetic point of view, we utilize a mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression model to analyze the impact of various variables on the distribution of /R/ variants. Our analysis of location, birth year and gender reveals that each variable and its interactions significantly influence the distribution of /R/ variants. We identify three distinct speaker groups based on their preferences for these variants: those favoring apical variants, those using uvular trills, and those employing neither apical nor uvular trills (mostly using fricatives and their approximantized or vocalized variants). From a phonological point of view, we show that the use of the /R/ variants among the three groups correlates with syllabic position, with weaker variants displayed in so-called “weakening” contexts, such as coda and intervocalic onset. Our results thus show that the apparent diversity of /R/ realizations in QF actually follows a pattern from both a sociolinguistic and a formal phonological point of view. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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35 pages, 1781 KiB  
Article
Is the Foot a Prosodic Domain in European Portuguese?
by Marina Vigário and Violeta Martínez-Paricio
Languages 2024, 9(11), 332; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9110332 - 24 Oct 2024
Viewed by 659
Abstract
It is widely accepted that languages organize speech material into prosodic domains, which are hierarchically arranged. However, it is still a matter of debate whether this prosodic hierarchy is composed of a small number of universal categories, or whether these prosodic categories are [...] Read more.
It is widely accepted that languages organize speech material into prosodic domains, which are hierarchically arranged. However, it is still a matter of debate whether this prosodic hierarchy is composed of a small number of universal categories, or whether these prosodic categories are language-particular and emergent. In this article, we concentrate on one of these categories, the foot, and we investigate its role in European Portuguese (EP). Whereas research on EP has shown that other prosodic domains commonly found crosslinguistically are active in the language, it seems that EP may lack this prosodic constituent. Therefore, the goal of this article is to systematically investigate the role of the foot in a number of areas within EP grammar. In our study, we defend some new approaches to several long-standing issues in EP phonology and we conclude that many facts of the language can be, in fact, better understood resorting to the foot domain. Namely, the distribution of stress in the most frequent morphological classes (thematic non-verbs and present tense verbs), -inh-/-zinh- diminutive formation, the domain for regular vowel reduction, obligatory glide formation, the stress window, and poetic rhyme seem to benefit from a metrically-governed account. By contrast, other facts, such as vowel lowering, word clipping, minimal words, secondary stress, and schwa deletion are shown not to be conditioned by the foot in EP. Importantly, the evidence we found for metrical structure only cues the prominent foot of the word, suggesting that pretonic material may not be footed. All in all, in addition to shedding light on facts previously poorly understood, and exposing some noteworthy specificities of EP in the realm of Romance languages and other varieties of Portuguese, we draw implications for the universal characterization of the prosodic hierarchy and its acquisition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
25 pages, 1571 KiB  
Article
Unfolding Prosody Guides the Development of Word Segmentation
by Sónia Frota, Cátia Severino and Marina Vigário
Languages 2024, 9(9), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9090305 - 19 Sep 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 643
Abstract
Prosody is known to scaffold the learning of language, and thus understanding prosodic development is vital for language acquisition. The present study explored the unfolding prosody model of prosodic development (proposed in Frota’s et al. study in 2016) beyond early production data, to [...] Read more.
Prosody is known to scaffold the learning of language, and thus understanding prosodic development is vital for language acquisition. The present study explored the unfolding prosody model of prosodic development (proposed in Frota’s et al. study in 2016) beyond early production data, to examine whether it predicted the development of early segmentation abilities. European Portuguese-learning infants aged between 5 and 17 months were tested in a series of word segmentation experiments. Developing prosodic structure was evidenced in word segmentation as proposed by the unfolding model: (i) a simple monosyllabic word shape crucially placed at a major prosodic edge was segmented first, before more complex word shapes under similar prosodic conditions; (ii) the segmentation of more complex words was easier at a major prosodic edge than in phrase-medial position; and (iii) the segmentation of complex words with an iambic pattern preceded the segmentation of words with a trochaic pattern. These findings demonstrated that word segmentation evolved with unfolding prosody, suggesting that the prosodic units developed in the unfolding process are used both as speech production planning units and to extract word-forms from continuous speech. Therefore, our study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying word segmentation, and to a better understanding of early prosodic development, a cornerstone of language acquisition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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21 pages, 440 KiB  
Article
Plural Alternations and Word-Final Consonant Syllabification in Brazilian Veneto
by Natália Brambatti Guzzo
Languages 2024, 9(8), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9080259 - 26 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1051
Abstract
In Brazilian Veneto (a heritage variety of Veneto spoken in several areas of Brazil), a stem alternation targets the plurals of masculine nominals ending in a consonant. While nominals with a word-final rhotic or nasal are pluralized by adding the masculine plural suffix [...] Read more.
In Brazilian Veneto (a heritage variety of Veneto spoken in several areas of Brazil), a stem alternation targets the plurals of masculine nominals ending in a consonant. While nominals with a word-final rhotic or nasal are pluralized by adding the masculine plural suffix /−i/ ([bi't∫̑er]→[bi't∫̑eri] ‘glass’), pluralization in nominals with a final lateral involves deletion of the consonant (e.g., [ni'sol]→[ni'soi] ‘bedsheet’). I argue that these differences stem from word-final laterals having a distinct representation from rhotics and nasals: while the latter are represented as codas, the former are represented as onsets of empty-headed syllables. Based on a corpus analysis, I show that (a) speakers’ productions of these plurals are stable, and (b) other patterns of pluralization (namely, in monosyllables and words with final stress on a CV syllable) are consistent with the proposal. In addition, the behaviour of laterals with respect to resyllabification, metaphony and intervocalic consonant deletion further suggest that laterals are represented as onsets word-finally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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24 pages, 1546 KiB  
Article
Articulatory Characteristics of Secondary Palatalization in Romanian Fricatives
by Laura Spinu, Alexei Kochetov and Maida Percival
Languages 2024, 9(6), 201; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060201 - 31 May 2024
Viewed by 678
Abstract
The production of fricatives involves the complex interaction of articulatory constraints resulting from the formation of the appropriate oral constriction, the control of airflow through the constriction so as to achieve frication and, in the case of voiced fricatives, the maintenance of glottal [...] Read more.
The production of fricatives involves the complex interaction of articulatory constraints resulting from the formation of the appropriate oral constriction, the control of airflow through the constriction so as to achieve frication and, in the case of voiced fricatives, the maintenance of glottal oscillation by attending to transglottal pressure. To better understand this mechanism in a relatively understudied language, we explore the articulatory characteristics of five pairs of plain and palatalized Romanian fricatives produced by 10 native speakers using ultrasound imaging. Our analysis includes an assessment of the robustness of the plain-palatalized contrast at different places of articulation, a comparison of secondary palatalization with other relevant word-final [Ci] structures, and the identification of individual variation patterns. Since our study is the first to document the articulatory properties of secondary palatalization in Romanian, our findings are of descriptive interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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46 pages, 2878 KiB  
Article
A Stratal Phonological Analysis of Stem-Level and Word-Level Effects in Old French Compensatory Vowel Lengthening upon Coda /s/ Deletion
by Francisco Antonio Montaño
Languages 2024, 9(5), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050177 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 1298
Abstract
The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, [...] Read more.
The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, examining their interaction with stress assignment, vowel quality, schwa adjustment, prothesis, and morphological structure. The Stratal OT analysis formalizes the proposed pattern differentiating the long and short vowel reflexes identified especially for mid vowels: while categorical in tonic syllables and low vowels /a, ɑ/ irrespective of stress, lengthening only prevails in atonic mid vowels when coda /s/ deletion impacts a syllable assigned stress within the specific stratal phonological cycle when /s/ is deleted from input. The resulting length is transmitted and preserved in subsequent stratal cycles regardless of eventual word-level stress reassignment, especially (but not exclusively) because of word-level schwa adjustment, allowing a shift to word-final stress and producing an opacity effect of a long atonic mid vowel inherited from an earlier cycle. The stratal account formalizes observed analogical effects between lexical items and derived forms with respect to vowel quality and length and proposes them to result instead from the interplay of morphology and phonology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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24 pages, 4100 KiB  
Article
Robustness and Complexity in Italian Mid Vowel Contrasts
by Margaret E. L. Renwick
Languages 2024, 9(4), 150; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040150 - 18 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1541
Abstract
Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering [...] Read more.
Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering the lexicon, linguistic structure, usage, and regional variety. The Italian mid vowels are marginally contrastive due to a scarcity of minimal pairs alongside variation in phonetic realization. The analysis considers corpus data, which indicate that the marginal contrasts among front vowels vs. back vowels are driven by different sources and forces. Functional loads are low; while front /e ɛ/ have the weakest lexical contrast among all Italian vowels, back /o ɔ/ are separated by somewhat more minimal pairs. Among stressed front vowels, height is predicted by syllable structure and is context-dependent in some Italian varieties. Meanwhile, the height of back mid vowels is predicted by lexical frequency, in line with expectations of phonetic reduction in high-frequency contexts. For both front and back vowels, the phonetic factor of duration predicts vowel height, especially in closed syllables, suggesting its use for contrast enhancement. The results have implications for a proposed formalization of Italian mid vowel variation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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