Segmental and prosodic issues in Romance phonology

This volume is a collection of cutting-edge research papers written by well-known researchers in the field of Romance phonetics and phonology. An important goal of this book is to bridge the gap between traditional Romance linguistics — with its long and rich tradition in data collection, cross-language comparison, and phonetic variation — and laboratory phonology work. The book is organized around three main themes: segmental processes, prosody, and the acquisition of segments and prosody. The various articles provide new empirical data on production, perception, sound change, first and second language learning, rhythm and intonation, presenting a state-of-the-art overview of research in laboratory phonology centred on Romance languages. The Romance data are used to test the predictions of a number of theoretical frameworks such as gestural phonology, exemplar models, generative phonology and optimality theory. The book will constitute a useful companion volume for phoneticians, phonologists and researchers investigating sound structure in Romance languages, and will serve to generate further interest in laboratory phonology.

Bob Ladd, The University of Edinburgh:
A very useful volume that makes it clear that laboratory phonology has come of age. The focus on Romance not only gives a thematic coherence to the volume, but is appropriate in a broader sense. A century ago, the existence of a well studied group of languages with a well documented common ancestor was a valuable resource in the development our understanding of language change. Today, the close study of the Romance languages promises to advance our understanding once again.