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Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan

  • José Ignacio Hualde , Marianna Nadeu and Miquel Simonet
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Romance Linguistics 2009
This chapter is in the book Romance Linguistics 2009

Abstract

It has been claimed that in Majorcan Catalan /b/ tends to be realized as a stop in contexts where Central Catalan /b/ has approximant realizations. Here we test this claim using two continuous dimensions that we take as acoustic correlates of degree of constriction. We also examine the relative degree of constriction of Majorcan /b/ with respect to /d/ and /g/. We argue that Majorcan Catalan is less advanced in the historical weakening of /b/ than other dialects. Against other proposals, we maintain that a principle of contrast preservation is not required in order to explain the phonetic facts.

Abstract

It has been claimed that in Majorcan Catalan /b/ tends to be realized as a stop in contexts where Central Catalan /b/ has approximant realizations. Here we test this claim using two continuous dimensions that we take as acoustic correlates of degree of constriction. We also examine the relative degree of constriction of Majorcan /b/ with respect to /d/ and /g/. We argue that Majorcan Catalan is less advanced in the historical weakening of /b/ than other dialects. Against other proposals, we maintain that a principle of contrast preservation is not required in order to explain the phonetic facts.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgements ix
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Editors’ introduction 1
  6. Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
  7. Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
  8. V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
  9. The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
  10. Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
  11. Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
  12. Units of speech production in Italian 95
  13. Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
  14. Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
  15. Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
  16. Part II. Syntax
  17. Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
  18. Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
  19. More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
  20. The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
  21. Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
  22. To agree or not to agree 249
  23. Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
  24. A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
  25. V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
  26. Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
  27. The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
  28. Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
  29. Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
  30. Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
  31. Detours along the perfect path 387
  32. Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
  33. Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.315.04hua

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgements ix
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Editors’ introduction 1
  6. Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
  7. Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
  8. V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
  9. The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
  10. Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
  11. Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
  12. Units of speech production in Italian 95
  13. Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
  14. Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
  15. Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
  16. Part II. Syntax
  17. Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
  18. Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
  19. More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
  20. The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
  21. Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
  22. To agree or not to agree 249
  23. Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
  24. A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
  25. V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
  26. Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
  27. The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
  28. Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
  29. Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
  30. Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
  31. Detours along the perfect path 387
  32. Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
  33. Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
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