Welsh alveopalatals: Functional pattern attraction
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Toby D. Griffen [1]
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[1] Illinois University, Edwardsville
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- Localización: Word: Journal of the International Linguistic Association, ISSN-e 2373-5112, ISSN 0043-7956, Vol. 48, Nº 3, 1997, págs. 353-366
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
In the Welsh mutation system, consonants alternate in grammatical context. As the borrowed affricates and are integrated into the phonological system of a dialect, they begin to alternate in soft mutation on the pattern of [t] and [d], respectively. As these affricates are further integrated in some dialects, they begin to alternate in nasal mutation—as [t] alternates with and [d] alternates with [n], alternates with an innovative and alternates with an innovative . Finally, they have integrated in some dialects into the alternations of aspirate mutation—as [t] alternates with [θ], alternates with an innovative [θ']. The manner in which these innovations have taken place indicates that the affected dialects of Welsh have developed an alveopalatal order that is now almost complete—a new functional place of articulation. While Martinet's theory of pattern attraction in a strictly structural inventory of orders and series would not have predicted these developments, an extension of this theory in a functional order-and-series framework such as that maintained in the morphophonological mutation system does indeed predict the developments. Moreover, it is strongly supported by the evidence of dynamic phonetics and the framework of dynamic phonology.
