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The internal TR clusters of Acadian French

A hint from schwa

Abstract

On the surface Acadian French appears to have word-initial and word-internal branching onsets. A closer look at the data however, reveals that no branching onsets can be followed by schwa. This fact leads me to propose that the TR clusters of Acadian French are bogus and that onsets do not branch in this dialect of French. [TRV] sequences have the structure of two separate onsets with a p-licensed and unrealised empty nucleus occurring between the stop and the liquid. When such a bogus cluster (i.e. /TøR/) is followed by a nucleus which is lexically empty, the form surfaces as [TəR] as a result of ECP.

Abstract

On the surface Acadian French appears to have word-initial and word-internal branching onsets. A closer look at the data however, reveals that no branching onsets can be followed by schwa. This fact leads me to propose that the TR clusters of Acadian French are bogus and that onsets do not branch in this dialect of French. [TRV] sequences have the structure of two separate onsets with a p-licensed and unrealised empty nucleus occurring between the stop and the liquid. When such a bogus cluster (i.e. /TøR/) is followed by a nucleus which is lexically empty, the form surfaces as [TəR] as a result of ECP.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Prelude, theme and riffs vii
  4. English /au/ 1
  5. The internal TR clusters of Acadian French 17
  6. Hocus bogus? 33
  7. A unifying explanation of the Great Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging 63
  8. Deconstructing tongue root harmony systems 73
  9. Underlying representations and Bantu segmental phonology 101
  10. Uniqueness in element signatures 117
  11. Charting the vowel space 133
  12. The relative salience of consonant nasality and true obstruent voicing 145
  13. Asymmetric variation 163
  14. The beginning of the word 189
  15. On the diachronic origin of Nivkh height restrictions 201
  16. Segmental loss and phonological representation 215
  17. The phonology of handshape distribution in Maxakalí sign 231
  18. English stress is binary and lexical 263
  19. Bogus clusters and lenition in Tuscan Italian 277
  20. The prosodic status of glides in Anaañ reduplication 297
  21. Index 321
Sonic Signatures
This chapter is in the book Sonic Signatures
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.14.c2

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Prelude, theme and riffs vii
  4. English /au/ 1
  5. The internal TR clusters of Acadian French 17
  6. Hocus bogus? 33
  7. A unifying explanation of the Great Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging 63
  8. Deconstructing tongue root harmony systems 73
  9. Underlying representations and Bantu segmental phonology 101
  10. Uniqueness in element signatures 117
  11. Charting the vowel space 133
  12. The relative salience of consonant nasality and true obstruent voicing 145
  13. Asymmetric variation 163
  14. The beginning of the word 189
  15. On the diachronic origin of Nivkh height restrictions 201
  16. Segmental loss and phonological representation 215
  17. The phonology of handshape distribution in Maxakalí sign 231
  18. English stress is binary and lexical 263
  19. Bogus clusters and lenition in Tuscan Italian 277
  20. The prosodic status of glides in Anaañ reduplication 297
  21. Index 321
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