LINGUIST List 17.282
Fri Jan 27 2006
Diss: Phonology: Schaeffler: 'Phonological Quantity...'
Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant
<meredithlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Felix
Schaeffler,
Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects: Typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change
Message 1: Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects: Typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change
Date: 27-Jan-2006
From: Felix Schaeffler <felix.schaefflergmail.com>
Subject: Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects: Typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change
Institution: Umeå University
Program: Philosophy and Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: Felix Schaeffler
Dissertation Title: Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects: Typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change
Dissertation URL: http://www.diva-portal.org/umu/theses/abstract.xsql?dbid=587
Linguistic Field(s):
Phonology
Subject Language(s): Swedish (swe)
Dissertation Director:
Anders Eriksson
Eva Strangert
Dissertation Abstract:
This study investigates the realisation of phonological quantity in thedialects of Modern Swedish, based on a corpus containing recordings from 86locations in Sweden and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland. The corpuswas recorded as part of the national SweDia project.
The study is explorative in character. Quantity structures in Swedishdialects and their geographical distribution, as described in thedialectological literature, are compared to the results of a data-drivencategorisation (cluster analysis). The results reveal an overall goodcorrespondence of the data driven and the traditional categorisation,although with some deviations in the detail.
The study is divided into two parts. The first part lays the foundation forthe data-driven categorisation, which is then described in the second part.First, the phonology and phonetics of quantity in Swedish are described interms of durational distinctions and vocalic quality differences thattypically accompany the durational differences. Preaspiration, whichappears to be a normative feature in some dialects, is covered as well. Anoverview of the historical development of the Swedish quantity system isprovided, with special emphasis on a phonological interpretation ofquantity changes. Thereafter, dialectological evidence is combined withphonological and typological considerations to develop a categorisation ofSwedish dialects.
The second part explains the methodology of cluster analysis and appliesthis method to vowel and consonant durations from one contrastive wordpair, in order to obtain an alternative dialect categorisation. Analyses ofvowel quality and preaspiration are performed in addition to the durationalanalyses. Hypotheses derived from the cluster analysis are then tested onone additional word pair recorded in 75 locations and on three additionalword pairs recorded in four locations.
The general pattern emerging from the cluster analysis is a categorisationof the dialects into three main types, a Finland-Swedish, a Northern and aSouthern type. This categorisation shows a good geographical agreement withthe categorisation that is derived from the analysis of the dialectologicalliterature. Therefore, the durational patterns of the three types areinterpreted as reflections of three different phonological systems: 4-waysystems with vocalic and consonantal quantity, 3-way systems with vocalicquantity and with consonantal quantity only after short vowels, and 2-waysystems with complementary quantity. From the historical perspective, the4-way system constitutes the most conservative and the 2-way system themost recently developed system.
Finally, it is argued that the historical development is one of the factorsbehind occasional mismatches between the data-driven and thedialectological categorisation. Data from one of the dialects, which hasrecently abandoned a 4-way system but has obviously retained the durationalproperties of the older system, is used as an example to illustrate thishistorical hypothesis.
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