Description
TitleConstraint interaction in Spanish /s/-aspiration: three Peninsular varieties
PublisherCascadilla Press
Date Created2000
Extent17 p.
DescriptionStudies of aspiration in Peninsular Spanish usually concur that aspiration is characterized by considerable variation. Despite this variation, however, three clear patterns emerge: simple aspiration, gemination with preaspiration, and gemination. (e.g. obispo [obihpo], [obihppo], [obippo]). Unlike the voiceless stops and sonorants, the voiced obstruent series conditions a combination of aspiration, voicing assimilation, and segmental coalescence (e.g. resbalar [reFalar], desde [deTe], disgusto [dixuhto]). {Note: [F] = voiceless bilabial fricative; [T] = voiceless dental fricative} This paper presents a reanalysis of Peninsular data in which the three aspiration varieties represent different ways of satisfying the coda condition for Spanish, which varies across dialects but also conforms to universal norms, all the while maintaining maximal feature faithfulness. All three aspiration varieties require the suppression of some underlying structure and the reconfiguration of already existing structure. Two positional markedness constraints *C/[spread glottis] or *C/[continuant], which ban their respective features from syllable coda, force violation of lower-ranked IDENT [spread], IDENT [cont], DEP-LINK (No structural insertion), UNIFORMITY (No merging), and HAVE-PLACE (No placeless segments) in candidate evaluation. Progressively promoting *C/[spread] and demoting DEP-LINK results in increasingly unmarked coda structures, and models the diachronic tendency toward aspiration and ultimately segmental deletion. Secondary processes, such as preaspiration, gemination and coalescence, are shown to represent emergence of the unmarked.
NoteThe definitive version of this paper was published in Hispanic Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium: Papers from the 3rd Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (2000) and is available at http://www.cascadilla.com/hls3.html
NoteMorris, Richard D. (2000). Constraint Interaction in Spanish /s/-Aspiration: Three Peninsular Varieties. In H.Campos, E. Herburger, A. Morales-Front, and T.J. Walsh (Eds.) Hispanic Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium: Papers from the 3rd Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA : Cascadilla Press
GenreConference Paper or Lecture
LanguageEnglish
CollectionRutgers Optimality Archive
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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