François Dell

Syllabic Consonants and Syllabification in Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber

This article deals with the Tashlhiyt dialect of Berber äs spoken in the Imdlawn valley, seventy kilometers northeast of the city of Taroudant, in the Western Higher Atlas. One of us (ME) is a native Speaker of that dialect, which will henceforth be referred to äs ITB. A more detailed treatment of some of the points discussed here will be found in Elmedlaoui(1985). ITB has syllabic consonants (sonorants and obstruents), and the eligibility of a segment for being a syllabic peak depends on its position in the sonority hierarchy (sections 2 and 3). Before a pause two syllables may be fused into one (section 4). Long segments behave äs asymmetrical sequences of two units (section 5). The regularities discussed in this article are independent of grammatical categories or of the morphological make up of words. They are exceptionless, äs far äs we know. ITB has three vowels a, i and w, and the semivowels y and w. We shall call the segments i, yy u, and w high vocoids (henceforth HV). i and y are in complementary distribution in the phonetic representations, and so are u and w: if a HV is adjacent to a syllabic segment it must be a semivowel, otherwise it must be a vowel. For instance the 3m. sg. prefix shows up äs y when the following segment is syllabic, and äs / otherwise (cf. (1)), and the 2 pl. pronoun is pronounced un when the preposition which governs it ends in a nonsyllabic segment, and wn if that preposition ends in a syllabic segment (cf. (2)):

Consonant clusters and phonological syllables in French

Abstract This study presents an overview of consonant distribution in French words. Certain restrictions on consonant clustering are best accounted for by positing two types of rime, simple and compound. Syllables with a simple rime can occur anywhere but at the end of word. Their vowels can be followed by one consonant at most (cf., e.g., the syllable /ap/ in abstrait ). Syllables with a compound rime can occur only at the end of words. A compound rime (e.g. /erdr/ in perdre ) consists of a simple rime (/er/) and a syllable onset (/dr/). Other examples of compound rimes are /a.r/ in car , /u.vr/ in couvre , /ak.t/ in contact and /ek.str/ in ambidextre .

Syllables in Tashlhiyt Berber and in Moroccan Arabic

Chapter 2. Syntax and morphology, an overview 2.1. Sound system 2.2. Notational conventions 2.3. Syntax 2.3.1. Basic sentence structure 2.3.2. Verbal clitics 2.3.3. Relative clauses 2.4. Verbal morphology 2.5. Nominal morphology 2.5.1. Vowel-initial nouns, the basic facts 2.5.2. Alternations involving the augment 2.5.3. Consonant-initial nouns 2.5.3.1. 1C-initial nouns 2.5.3.2. Other consonant-initial nouns

Generative phonology and French phonology

Foreword Preface Notations and conventions Pronunciation of the phonetic symbols Part I. Languages and Grammars: 1. The sound-meaning correspondence 2. Formal languages and grammars 3. The general organization of grammars Surface structures 4. Linguistic theory Part II. From Surface Structures to Phonetic Representations: 1. Phonetic representations 2. The system of distinctive features 3. From surface structures to phonetic representations 4. The order of application of phonological rules 5. Lexical redundancy Part III. Two Fragments of a Phonological Component: 1. Some phonological rules of Zoque 2. The vowels of Yawelmani Conclusion Bibliography Index.

Syllabification and Empty Nuclei in Ath-Sidhar Rifian Berber

In this article we describe ine syllabic structure of Ath-Sidhar Rifian Berber (henceforth ASR), dealing along the way with issues which are of interest for current theories of the syllable: the distribution of geminate consonants, the behavior of the glides and the phonetic properties of schwa. In ASR the maximal syllable is CVC. Schwa (e) is inserted to allow the syllabification of consonant sequences, e.g. /y-wzn/ is realized äs yewzen. The behavior of the underfying glides suggests ihat schwa is the phonetic manifestation of an empty nucleus and that in a CC sequence at the beginning of a word the flrst C belongs to a rime which does not belong to any syllable. The second half of a geminate which does not precede a vowel must be left unsyüabified. The very short vocoids which occur at the phonetic level in ASR fall into two categories. Some are schwas whereas others are mere transiüons between adjacent consonants. Althougfi it is unclear whether the two sorts of vocoids are phoneticalfy distinct in all environments there i

Syllables and Gemination in Imperfective Stems in Tashlhiyt Berber

no doubt äs to their phonologfcal distinctness. This article is organized äs follows. The first section gives background Information about the phonology and morphology of ASR and about our presentation of the dato. In section 2 we describe its phonotactics and the distribution of schwa. We then discuss the phonology ofthe underfying glides and argue that in ASR schwa is the phonetic manifestation ofan empty nucleus {section 3). In section 4 we propose a syllabification procedure for ASR In section 5 we discuss the phonetic manifestations of empty nuclei in ASR

Review Article: Meter in poetry

In Tahlhiyt Berber certain verbs form their imperfective stem by geminating one consonant. Since Dell and Elmedlaoui 1988, accounts of imperfective gemination have been based on syllable structure. Lahrouchi (2010) proposes an alternative analysis based on a binary-branching head-complement structure that regulates the distribution of consonant types in verbal roots. This paper argues that the syllable-based account is preferable and that it makes the head-complement structures advocated by Lahrouchi redundant.

Two Cases of Exceptional Rule Ordering

Meter in poetry (MIP) presents a unified account of the meters used in the world’s poetic traditions. According to Fabb and Halle (F&H), all poetry is made up of lines and the defining feature of metrical poetry is that it involves restrictions on line length (p. 273). The aim of the book is to provide a general framework within which to characterize the various ways in which lines are measured and patterned in the world’s poetic traditions. The general outlook of MIP is that of generative linguistics. Just as a linguistic theory is a theory of grammatical well-formedness, a theory of meter is a theory of metrical well-formedness. As its title indicates, the book deals only with meter, not with versification in general; topics such as rhyme, alliteration, and stanza structure are touched upon only to the extent that they are relevant to the discussion of meter. Works with comparable theoretical goals have appeared in the past, notably Chapter 3 of Halle and Keyser (1971), Kiparsky (1977), Hayes (1983, 1989), Prince (1989), Hanson and Kiparsky (1996), Golston (1998), and Golston and Riad (2000). These were all of article size and none of them dealt with more than a few poetic traditions. MIP’s empirical coverage is incomparably more vast. Here are the main headings of the table of contents: “A theory of poetic meter” (pp. 1–43); “English strict meters” (pp. 44–66); “English loose meters” (pp. 67–93); “Southern Romance” (pp. 94–132); “French” (pp. 133–152); “Greek” (pp. 153–185); “Classical Arabic” (pp. 186–213); “Sanskrit” (pp. 214–237); “Latvian” (pp. 238–250); “Meters of the world” (pp. 251–267); “The metrical poetry of the Old Testament” (pp. 268–284).

Syllabic Consonants in Berber: Some New Evidence

Until very recently, it was generally assumed by linguists working within the framework of generative phonology that grammars must meet the following condition: