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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Postvelar harmony : an examination of its bases and crosslinguistic variation Shahin, Kimary N.
Abstract
This dissertation examines postvelar harmony in two unrelated languages: Palestinian Arabic and St'at'imcets Salish. In contrast to previous studies, it identifies two such harmonies for each language: pharyngealisation (tongue root retraction) harmony and uvularisation (tongue back retraction) harmony. The properties of the two harmonies in each language are detailed. Acoustic data are provided as support for the proposed analyses and for the grounded phonological accounts which are subsequently developed. The harmonic feature of pharyngealisation harmony in both Palestinian and St'a'timcets is identified as [RTR] (unspecified for primary or secondary status). The anchor for [RTR] in both languages is the NUC. Co-occurring secondary-[DOR] and secondary-[RTR] are identified as the harmonic features of uvularisation harmony. In both languages, the anchor for these co-occurring features is the root node. An Optimality Theory account of the two harmonies in each language is developed, in which Correspondence, Alignment, and Grounded Constraints have central roles. Constraint reranking is shown to yield the observed crosslinguistic variation in the harmonies. In the course of this examination, issues regarding the consonantal and vocalic inventories of Palestinian and St'at'imcets are adressed. It is argued that each has a more elaborate vocalic system than previously recognised, and that St'at'imcets, like Palestinian, has a set of underlying emphatic consonants.
Item Metadata
Title |
Postvelar harmony : an examination of its bases and crosslinguistic variation
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1997
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Description |
This dissertation examines postvelar harmony in two unrelated languages:
Palestinian Arabic and St'at'imcets Salish. In contrast to previous studies, it identifies two
such harmonies for each language: pharyngealisation (tongue root retraction) harmony and
uvularisation (tongue back retraction) harmony. The properties of the two harmonies in
each language are detailed. Acoustic data are provided as support for the proposed
analyses and for the grounded phonological accounts which are subsequently developed.
The harmonic feature of pharyngealisation harmony in both Palestinian and St'a'timcets is
identified as [RTR] (unspecified for primary or secondary status). The anchor for [RTR] in
both languages is the NUC. Co-occurring secondary-[DOR] and secondary-[RTR] are
identified as the harmonic features of uvularisation harmony. In both languages, the
anchor for these co-occurring features is the root node. An Optimality Theory account of
the two harmonies in each language is developed, in which Correspondence, Alignment,
and Grounded Constraints have central roles. Constraint reranking is shown to yield the
observed crosslinguistic variation in the harmonies. In the course of this examination,
issues regarding the consonantal and vocalic inventories of Palestinian and St'at'imcets are
adressed. It is argued that each has a more elaborate vocalic system than previously
recognised, and that St'at'imcets, like Palestinian, has a set of underlying emphatic
consonants.
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Extent |
24620603 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-04-20
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0088253
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1997-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.