LINGUIST List 12.1839

Tue Jul 17 2001

Books: Phonology

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Sean Hanrahan, Phonology: Phonetic and Phonological Aspect of Geminate Timing
2. Sean Hanrahan, Phonology: Vowel Reduction in Optimality Theory by K. Crosswhite

William Ham, PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL ASPECT OF GEMINATE TIMING

This book examines the timing properties of geminates in Bernese (a
dialect of Swiss German), Hungarian, Levantine Arabic, and Madurese
(an Austronesian language of Indonesia). These languages differ as to
whether vowel length is underlyingly contrastive, whether long vowels
may precede geminates, and whether non-medial geminates are allowed.
Two questions of primary interest are in what ways these phonological
differences influence phonetic duration, and how geminates are
integrated into the overall timing strategies of the languages. Based
on acoustic studies of the four languages, the author argues that
differences in geminate timing are ultimately correlated with whether
a language is syllable- or mora-timed, such that geminates in the
former type are typically shorter. This observation is accounted for
in a model of geminate timing which integrates phonetic and
phonological factors with both syntagmatic and hierarchical
influences. Other topics addressed include the moraic theory of
geminates, "weightless geminates" and word- final geminates.
Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics Series

Routledge September 2001 275 pp
HB: 0 415 93760 4 $70.00 �50.00

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
List of Symbols
1 Introduction
2 General Methodology
3 Bernese
4 Cross-language Study: Phonological Overview
5 Cross-language Study: Acoustic Investigations
6 Suprasegmental Timing
7 An Integrated Timing Model
Appendix 1. Bernese Word List
Appendix 2. Levantine Word List
Appendix 3. Hungarian Word List
Appendix 4. Maudrese Word List
References
Index

Katherine Crosswhite, University of Rochester, VOWEL
REDUCTION IN OPTIMALITY THEORY

This book examines the phenomenon of vowel reduction, in which two or
more underlying vowel qualities are neutralized in unstressed
position. The main purpose is to identify any cross-linguistic trends
seen in languages that have vowel reduction, and to explicate the
reasons behind these trends. Based on comparison of vowel reduction
phenomena from a number of languages, vowel reduction is claimed to be
a non-unitary phenomenon, lending itself to a twofold analysis of
vowel reduction: one based on increasing vowel dispersion in
unstressed syllables, and the other based on decreasing the sonority
of unstressed vowels. The analysis provided for these two types of
vowel reduction allow for predictions about the possible types of
reduction systems that should be found in the world's languages.
Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series.

Routledge August 2001 336 pp
Hb: 0 415 93691 8 $70.00 �50.00

1 Introduction and Backgrounds
2 Motivating Reduction: The Constraint Set
3 Case Study: Russian Vowel Reduction
4 Phonetic Motivation vs. Phonetic Determinism
5 Factorial Typology
6 Contextual Blocking of Vowel Reduction
7 Moraicity, Reduction, and Stress-Timing
8 Previous Approaches to Vowel Reduction
Appendix A: Attested Reduction Patterns, Alphabetically by Language
Appendix B: Predicted Reduction Patterns for 5- and 7-Vowel
Systems
Notes
References
Index