Syllable Merger in Moroccan Judeo-Spanish
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Theoretical linguistics
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
Start Date
19-10-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
19-10-2024 1:00 PM
Abstract
This study examines syllable merger in Moroccan Judeo-Spanish (MJS), a variety of Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews who resettled in Morocco after the 1492 expulsion from Spain. MJS, also known as haketía, retains features of Medieval Spanish while also having developed unique characteristics. By the mid-20th century, MJS had reached moribund status, with no monolingual speakers remaining. Focusing on the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Benoliel 1977[1926–28], Bénichou 1945), we identify three main processes for resolving vowel hiatus across word boundaries in MJS, all of which result in the merger of two syllables into one: gliding and diphthongization, coalescence, and deletion. In particular, unstressed high vowels /i,u/ become glides, mid vowels /e,o/ become mid glides without raising to high glides, and unstressed identical vowels coalesce into a single vowel. Phrasal nuclear stress on the initial vowel of a prepausal word blocks syllable merger. In prenuclear position, /o/ deletes before /u/, while /e/ deletes in a wider range of morpho-phonological contexts. /a/ is stable, never gliding nor deleting. Comparisons with contemporary Chicano Spanish (CS; Baković 2006, Colina 2009, Martínez-Gil 2016) and non-normative Northern Central Peninsular Spanish (NCPS; Hualde 2014) reveal cross-linguistic variation in hiatus resolution strategies. We demonstrate that MJS has a hybrid pattern that combines properties of syllable merger as attested in CS and NCPS.
Using Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky 2004[1993], McCarthy & Prince 1999), we formalize a phonological analysis of syllable merger in MJS. A high-ranking markedness constraint against onsetless syllables is the driver of various repair strategies, which emerge from an interaction with faithfulness constraints. Additionally, we show how a usage-based representation of the mental lexicon, as proposed in Exemplar Theory (Johnson 1997), can model word-specific variation in /e/-deletion as variability between two allomorphs: a full, unreduced form vs. a reduced form that already lacks the deleted vowel. By providing a detailed OT account of MJS syllable merger, this study underscores the importance of documenting and analyzing endangered languages like JS and contributes to a deeper understanding of Sephardic Spanish phonology as a linguistic system within the Hispano-Romance family.
(Word count: 345)
Keywords: phonology, hiatus resolution, syllable merger, Moroccan Judeo-Spanish, Optimality Theory
References
Baković, Eric. 2006. Hiatus resolution and incomplete identity. In Optimality-theoretic studies in Spanish phonology. Ed. by Fernando Martinez-Gil & Sonia Colina. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 62–73.
Bénichou, Paul. 1945. Observaciones sobre el judeo-español de Marruecos. Revista de Filología Hispánica 7. 209–58.
Benoliel, José. 1977[1926–28]. Dialecto judeo-hispano-marroquí o haquitía. Salamanca: Copistería Varona.
Colina, Sonia. 2009. Spanish phonology: A syllabic perspective. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2014. Los sonidos del español. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, Keith. 1997. Speech perception without speaker normalization: An exemplar model. In Talker Variability in Speech Processing. Ed. by Keith Johnson & John W. Mullennix. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 145–65.
Martínez-Gil, Fernando. 2016. Syllable merger in Chicano Spanish: a constraint-based analysis. In The Syllable and Stress: studies in honor of James W. Harris. Ed. by Rafael Núñez Cedeño. Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 139–86.
McCarthy, John, & Alan Prince. 1999. Faithfulness and identity in prosodic morphology. In The Prosody‑Morphology Interface. Ed. by René Kager, Harry Van Der Hulst & Wim Zonneveld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 219–309.
Prince, Alan, & Paul Smolensky. 2004[1993]. Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Syllable Merger in Moroccan Judeo-Spanish
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
This study examines syllable merger in Moroccan Judeo-Spanish (MJS), a variety of Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews who resettled in Morocco after the 1492 expulsion from Spain. MJS, also known as haketía, retains features of Medieval Spanish while also having developed unique characteristics. By the mid-20th century, MJS had reached moribund status, with no monolingual speakers remaining. Focusing on the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Benoliel 1977[1926–28], Bénichou 1945), we identify three main processes for resolving vowel hiatus across word boundaries in MJS, all of which result in the merger of two syllables into one: gliding and diphthongization, coalescence, and deletion. In particular, unstressed high vowels /i,u/ become glides, mid vowels /e,o/ become mid glides without raising to high glides, and unstressed identical vowels coalesce into a single vowel. Phrasal nuclear stress on the initial vowel of a prepausal word blocks syllable merger. In prenuclear position, /o/ deletes before /u/, while /e/ deletes in a wider range of morpho-phonological contexts. /a/ is stable, never gliding nor deleting. Comparisons with contemporary Chicano Spanish (CS; Baković 2006, Colina 2009, Martínez-Gil 2016) and non-normative Northern Central Peninsular Spanish (NCPS; Hualde 2014) reveal cross-linguistic variation in hiatus resolution strategies. We demonstrate that MJS has a hybrid pattern that combines properties of syllable merger as attested in CS and NCPS.
Using Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky 2004[1993], McCarthy & Prince 1999), we formalize a phonological analysis of syllable merger in MJS. A high-ranking markedness constraint against onsetless syllables is the driver of various repair strategies, which emerge from an interaction with faithfulness constraints. Additionally, we show how a usage-based representation of the mental lexicon, as proposed in Exemplar Theory (Johnson 1997), can model word-specific variation in /e/-deletion as variability between two allomorphs: a full, unreduced form vs. a reduced form that already lacks the deleted vowel. By providing a detailed OT account of MJS syllable merger, this study underscores the importance of documenting and analyzing endangered languages like JS and contributes to a deeper understanding of Sephardic Spanish phonology as a linguistic system within the Hispano-Romance family.
(Word count: 345)
Keywords: phonology, hiatus resolution, syllable merger, Moroccan Judeo-Spanish, Optimality Theory
References
Baković, Eric. 2006. Hiatus resolution and incomplete identity. In Optimality-theoretic studies in Spanish phonology. Ed. by Fernando Martinez-Gil & Sonia Colina. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 62–73.
Bénichou, Paul. 1945. Observaciones sobre el judeo-español de Marruecos. Revista de Filología Hispánica 7. 209–58.
Benoliel, José. 1977[1926–28]. Dialecto judeo-hispano-marroquí o haquitía. Salamanca: Copistería Varona.
Colina, Sonia. 2009. Spanish phonology: A syllabic perspective. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2014. Los sonidos del español. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, Keith. 1997. Speech perception without speaker normalization: An exemplar model. In Talker Variability in Speech Processing. Ed. by Keith Johnson & John W. Mullennix. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 145–65.
Martínez-Gil, Fernando. 2016. Syllable merger in Chicano Spanish: a constraint-based analysis. In The Syllable and Stress: studies in honor of James W. Harris. Ed. by Rafael Núñez Cedeño. Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 139–86.
McCarthy, John, & Alan Prince. 1999. Faithfulness and identity in prosodic morphology. In The Prosody‑Morphology Interface. Ed. by René Kager, Harry Van Der Hulst & Wim Zonneveld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 219–309.
Prince, Alan, & Paul Smolensky. 2004[1993]. Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. Malden, MA: Blackwell.