Donca Steriade

Reduplication and syllable transfer in Sanskrit and elsewhere

The phenomenon studied in this paper is the correspondence between the syllabic position of segments copied in reduplication and the syllabic position of their base counterparts. I will document this correlation and propose a model of reduplication that explains it.

CLOSURE, RELEASE, AND NASAL CONTOURS

Publisher Summary Phonologists study contour segments as a class because they represent a paradox. On the one hand, they are tautosyllabic onset sequences even in languages where no other onset clusters are allowed. On the other hand, they are phonetic sequences of distinct gestures, each of which can be identified with a separate segment: /nd/ contains something that looks like /n/ and something that looks like /d/. This chapter presents the consequences of introducing notions, such as stop closure and stop release into the phonological analysis of nasality. Plosives—stops and affricates—are phonologically represented as a sequence of two positions, closure and release. In contrast, continuants—vowels, approximants, and fricatives—are assumed to carry a single position in phonological representations. An aperture position is rather similar to the feature-geometric notion of root node; it has the same functions of anchoring segmental features, such as place of articulation, nasality, and laryngeal features, and of connecting segments to prosodic structures such as syllables and moras.

Articulatory characteristics of French consonants are maintained after the loss of schwa

The optional loss of schwa in French generates consonant clusters. Thus de role [d■rol] can be produced as d’role [drol] and is thought to become homophonous with drole [drol]. This study compared articulatory and acoustic properties of [d] in these sequences in order to determine whether [d] maintains, after the loss of schwa, certain characteristics of the isolation form de. The sequences were inserted in a carrier sentence and repeated 20 times by three French speakers. Consonants were compared in terms of amount and location of linguopalatal contact (measured with EPG), their acoustic duration, and frequency of lenition (absence of closure). Preliminary results for one subject show that despite the complete disappearance of schwa, the [d] ind ’role has some of the same characteristics as the one in de role as opposed to drole: longer duration, greater and more anterior linguopalatal contact, less lenition. These results suggest that the loss of schwa does not lead to resyllabification of [d] with eith...