Rhotic Contrast and Neutralization in Judeo-Spanish
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Theoretical linguistics
Location
MBSC Gallery Room 308
Start Date
18-10-2024 2:30 PM
End Date
18-10-2024 3:00 PM
Abstract
Judeo-Spanish (JS) denotes the language of the Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from Spain beginning in 1492 and resettled in different locations around the Mediterranean. A controversial topic in JS descriptive linguistics is the status of the phonological opposition between two rhotic consonants, i.e. single /ɾ/ and multiple /r/. In normative Peninsular Spanish, the contrast is limited to word-medial intervocalic environments, while /r/ is otherwise obligatory in syllable-initial contexts (Hualde 2014). Penny (2000) goes so far as to argue that “No variety of Judeo-Spanish distinguishes the vibrant /r/ from the flap /ɾ/” (p. 179). Quintana Rodríguez (2023, p. 453) writes that /ɾ/ and /r/ have, in fact, been preserved in Thessaloniki JS. Furthermore, both /ɾ/ and /r/ are pronounced as a voiced approximant [ɹ] of variable duration in Istanbul JS. According to Quintana Rodríguez’s (2023, p. 452) description of an Istanbul JS idiolect, (i) word-initial [ɹ] tends toward frication, (ii) word-final prepausal [ɹ] is realized as a longer, voiceless fricative, and (iii) a contrast is maintained in word-medial intervocalic position between a short [ɹ] and a long [ɹː]. Instead of the difference between a single vs. multiple interruptions of airflow that characterizes the normative Peninsular Spanish contrast between /ɾ/ and /r/, the contrast in Istanbul JS is determined by relative segmental duration (Hualde & Şaul 2011, p. 102), even though the number of minimal pairs is small. On the other hand, word-medial intervocalic /r/ has been lost in Israel JS (Álvarez López 2018, pp. 23–24) and in Balkan and Romanian JS (Quintana Rodríguez 2006, p. 84, Sala 1963, pp. 352–53).
This study presents a phonological account of rhotic contrast and neutralization across JS varieties in Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004[1993], McCarthy & Prince 1999). Building upon a recent theoretical account of the rhotic distribution of Peninsular Spanish, I show how a perceptually-based markedness constraint limits the rhotic duration contrast to stem-medial intervocalic position. Different rankings of articulatorily-based markedness constraints generate the attested patterns of [ɾ]–[r] contrast in Thessaloniki JS, [ɹ]–[ɹː] contrast in Istanbul JS, and neutralization to [ɾ] in Balkan and Romanian JS.
(Word count: 348)
Keywords: phonology, rhotic consonants, Judeo-Spanish, Optimality Theory
References
Álvarez López, Cristóbal José. 2018. La desfonologización de las vibrantes en el judeoespañol contemporáneo de Israel. Philologia Hispalensis 32. 15–29.
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2014. Los sonidos del español. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hualde, José Ignacio & Mahir Şaul. 2011. Istanbul Judeo-Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 41. 89–110.
Penny, Ralph. 2000. Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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.
Quintana Rodríguez, Aldina. 2006. Geografía lingüística del judeoespañol. Bern: Lang.
Quintana Rodríguez, Aldina. 2023. Phonetics and phonology of Judaeo-Spanish. In Manual of Judaeo-Romance Linguistics and Philology. Ed. by Guido Mensching & Frank Savelsberg. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 429–61.
Sala, Marius. 1963. Factores internos y externos en la fonética judeoespañola. Boletín de filología de la Universidad de Chile 15. 349–53.
Rhotic Contrast and Neutralization in Judeo-Spanish
MBSC Gallery Room 308
Judeo-Spanish (JS) denotes the language of the Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from Spain beginning in 1492 and resettled in different locations around the Mediterranean. A controversial topic in JS descriptive linguistics is the status of the phonological opposition between two rhotic consonants, i.e. single /ɾ/ and multiple /r/. In normative Peninsular Spanish, the contrast is limited to word-medial intervocalic environments, while /r/ is otherwise obligatory in syllable-initial contexts (Hualde 2014). Penny (2000) goes so far as to argue that “No variety of Judeo-Spanish distinguishes the vibrant /r/ from the flap /ɾ/” (p. 179). Quintana Rodríguez (2023, p. 453) writes that /ɾ/ and /r/ have, in fact, been preserved in Thessaloniki JS. Furthermore, both /ɾ/ and /r/ are pronounced as a voiced approximant [ɹ] of variable duration in Istanbul JS. According to Quintana Rodríguez’s (2023, p. 452) description of an Istanbul JS idiolect, (i) word-initial [ɹ] tends toward frication, (ii) word-final prepausal [ɹ] is realized as a longer, voiceless fricative, and (iii) a contrast is maintained in word-medial intervocalic position between a short [ɹ] and a long [ɹː]. Instead of the difference between a single vs. multiple interruptions of airflow that characterizes the normative Peninsular Spanish contrast between /ɾ/ and /r/, the contrast in Istanbul JS is determined by relative segmental duration (Hualde & Şaul 2011, p. 102), even though the number of minimal pairs is small. On the other hand, word-medial intervocalic /r/ has been lost in Israel JS (Álvarez López 2018, pp. 23–24) and in Balkan and Romanian JS (Quintana Rodríguez 2006, p. 84, Sala 1963, pp. 352–53).
This study presents a phonological account of rhotic contrast and neutralization across JS varieties in Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004[1993], McCarthy & Prince 1999). Building upon a recent theoretical account of the rhotic distribution of Peninsular Spanish, I show how a perceptually-based markedness constraint limits the rhotic duration contrast to stem-medial intervocalic position. Different rankings of articulatorily-based markedness constraints generate the attested patterns of [ɾ]–[r] contrast in Thessaloniki JS, [ɹ]–[ɹː] contrast in Istanbul JS, and neutralization to [ɾ] in Balkan and Romanian JS.
(Word count: 348)
Keywords: phonology, rhotic consonants, Judeo-Spanish, Optimality Theory
References
Álvarez López, Cristóbal José. 2018. La desfonologización de las vibrantes en el judeoespañol contemporáneo de Israel. Philologia Hispalensis 32. 15–29.
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2014. Los sonidos del español. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hualde, José Ignacio & Mahir Şaul. 2011. Istanbul Judeo-Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 41. 89–110.
Penny, Ralph. 2000. Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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.
Quintana Rodríguez, Aldina. 2006. Geografía lingüística del judeoespañol. Bern: Lang.
Quintana Rodríguez, Aldina. 2023. Phonetics and phonology of Judaeo-Spanish. In Manual of Judaeo-Romance Linguistics and Philology. Ed. by Guido Mensching & Frank Savelsberg. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 429–61.
Sala, Marius. 1963. Factores internos y externos en la fonética judeoespañola. Boletín de filología de la Universidad de Chile 15. 349–53.