The Phonology of Welsh

198 Pages·2013·0.856 MB·Phonology of the World's Languages

by  S. J. Hannahs

OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
The Phonology of Welsh
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
THEPHONOLOGYOFTHEWORLD’SLANGUAGES
GeneralEditor:JacquesDurand
Published
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GeertBooij
ThePhonologyofStandardChinese,secondedition
SanDuanmu
ThePhonologyofPolish
EdmundGussmann
ThePhonologyofEnglish
MichaelHammond
ThePhonologyofWelsh
S.J.Hannahs
ThePhonologyofItalian
MartinKra¨mer
ThePhonologyofNorwegian
GjertKristoffersen
ThePhonologyofJapanese
LaurenceLabrune
ThePhonologyofPortuguese
MariaHelenaMateusandErnestod’Andrade
ThePhonologyandMorphologyofKimatuumbi
DavidOdden
ThePhonologyofSwedish
TomasRiad
TheLexicalPhonologyofSlovak
JerzyRubach
ThePhonologyofHungarian
Pe´terSipta´randMiklo´sTo¨rkenczy
ThePhonologyofMongolian
Jan-OlofSvantesson,AnnaTsendina,AnastasiaKarlsson,andVivanFranze´n
ThePhonologyofArmenian
BertVaux
ThePhonologyandMorphologyofArabic
JanetWatson
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MaxWheeler
ThePhonologyofGerman
RichardWiese
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
THE
PHONOLOGY
OF
WELSH
S. J. Hannahs
1
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
3
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OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
To my wife Maggie
and toour daughters, Maggie (the Younger)and Lillian
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
Anodd rhyngu boddy byd.
(Tudur Aled, 1480–1520)
Itis difficult toplease the world.
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,5/10/2013,SPi
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements x
Foreword xi
Abbreviations xiv
1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1
1.1 Welsh andthe Celtic languages:historical background 7
1.2 Modern Welsh 10
1.2.1 Social setting 10
1.2.2 Welshdialects 11
1.3 Structure ofthis book 11
2 A SURVEYOFWELSHPHONETICS:PHONETICS
ANDSEGMENT INVENTORIES 13
2.1 Welsh andWelsh dialects:differing segment inventories 13
2.2 Consonants 14
2.2.1 Stops 14
2.2.2 Affricates 15
2.2.3 Fricatives 16
2.2.4 Sonorants 18
2.2.5 Glides 20
2.2.6 Gemination 21
2.3 Vowels 22
2.3.1 Monophthongs 22
2.3.2 Diphthongs 24
2.3.3 Vowel length and restrictions 25
2.3.4 Welshschwa 26
2.4 Conclusion 27
3 WELSH PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURES: PROSODIC
STRUCTURE AND PHONOLOGY 28
3.1 Syllables, syllabification, and phonotactics 28
3.1.1 Welshsyllables,syllablestructure, and word minimality 28
3.1.2 Phonotactics 34
3.1.3 Syllabicityandsyllabification 37
3.1.4 Geminates 40
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viii contents
3.2 Stress 41
3.2.1 Regular stress patterns 44
3.2.2 Irregular stress 45
3.3 The foot 47
3.4 The prosodic word 49
3.5 Conclusion 51
4 PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES: WELSH SCHWA, VOWEL
MUTATION, VOWEL AFFECTION, AND ASSIMILATION 52
4.1 The phonological status of Welsh schwa 52
4.2 Vowel mutation 55
4.2.1 More on the [Ø](cid:1)[@]alternation 58
4.2.2 The [u](cid:1)[@]alternation 60
4.2.3 Alternating y[Ø]vs. stable u [Ø] 61
4.2.4 Optimalityaccounts ofvowelmutation 62
4.2.5 Revised account 75
4.3 Vowel affection 78
4.4 Assimilation 81
4.5 Conclusion 83
5 FOOT-BASED PHENOMENA: SONORITY SEQUENCING,
WELSH [h], AND ANTEPENULTIMATE DELETION 85
5.1 Sonority sequencing 87
5.1.1 The data 88
5.1.2 Analysis 93
5.2 Welsh /h/ 102
5.2.1 Backgroundand hypothesis 102
5.2.2 The data 103
5.2.3 Footing and [h] 104
5.2.4 The constraints 107
5.2.5 Analysis 110
5.3 Antepenultimate deletion 115
5.3.1 The data 115
5.3.2 Analysis 117
5.4 Conclusion 119
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contents ix
6 INITIAL CONSONANT MUTATION 120
6.1 Thephonetic origins andgrammaticalstatus of ICM 121
6.2 Thedata 125
6.3 Previous analyses 128
6.4 Pattern extraction 134
6.4.1 Extracting the relevant alternations 135
6.4.2 Therepresentationof pattern extraction 137
6.4.3 Subcategorization 142
6.4.4 Pattern extraction andotheraspects ofICM 143
6.5 Conclusion 148
7 REMAINING ISSUES AND FURTHER DIRECTIONS 150
7.1 Provection 150
7.1.1 Provection ascalediad 151
7.1.2 Provection at a morpheme boundary 152
7.2 Morphophonology 154
7.2.1 Compounding 155
7.2.2 Cliticsand their phonology 156
7.2.3 Phrasal phonology andsyllabification 157
7.3 Conclusion 159
References 161
Constraint index 173
Welsh word index 174
Subject and name index 180