Practical Information - Generative Linguistics in the Old World
Practical Information - Generative Linguistics in the Old World
Practical Information - Generative Linguistics in the Old World
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Gem<strong>in</strong>ates: from <strong>Old</strong> Norse to Scand<strong>in</strong>avian Languages.Laurence Voeltzel - Université de Nantes, Ll<strong>in</strong>g EA 3827Consonants <strong>in</strong> scand<strong>in</strong>avian languages (Icelandic, Faroese, Danish, Swedish and onevariety of Norwegian, Bokmål) have very similar behaviors: <strong>the</strong>y undergo <strong>the</strong> same changes.Some examples show<strong>in</strong>g this proximity are given below <strong>in</strong> (1):(1). (a) semi-vocalization Icelandic /lagɪ/ [lajɪ] lie past. part. ; /segja/ [sejːa] say <strong>in</strong>f.Faroese /stʊtligʊr/ [stʊtlijʊr] pleasant ; /drɔugu/ [drɔuwu] drag past. part.Danish /lægə/ [læjə] play <strong>in</strong>f. ; /sɒg/ [sɒˀw] sorrow ; /bɔg/ [bɔˀw] book(b) voic<strong>in</strong>g Icelandic /ljɛku/ [ljɛgu] play pret. ; /tapa/ [taba] lose <strong>in</strong>f. ;/matur/ [madur] mealFaroese /tɛaka/ [tɛaga] take <strong>in</strong>f. ; /drepa/ [dreːba] kill <strong>in</strong>f. ; /sita/ [siːda] sit <strong>in</strong>f.Danish /ʁyːpə/ [ʁyːbə] lagopus; /pawkə/ [pawgə] kettledrum ; /ʁuːtə/ [ʁuːdə] routeThis similarity f<strong>in</strong>ds its source <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> diachrony of <strong>the</strong>se languages: <strong>the</strong>y all are from<strong>the</strong> same language cont<strong>in</strong>uum, <strong>Old</strong> Norse (henceforth ON). In order to expla<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir behaviorand to test if this genetic proximity still holds <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> synchrony, we used <strong>the</strong> contrastivehierarchy method (Hall : 2007, Dresher : 2009), which allows us to identify <strong>the</strong>phonologically active material <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> segments. We obta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>the</strong> same hierarchy for <strong>the</strong> fivenordic languages. It is given <strong>in</strong> (2):(2). [glottal] >> [compact] >> [grave] >> [Spread Glottis] >> [strident] >> [voice][+glottal]/h/[+compact][-glottal][-compact][+SG] [-SG] [+grave] [-grave]/k/[+strident] [-strident] [+SG] [-SG] [+SG] [-SG]/j/ - /w/ 1 /g/ /p/ /t/vocalization [+strident] [-strident] [+strident] 2 [-strident]voic<strong>in</strong>g /f/ /b/ /s/ /d/The contrastivist approach allows us to expla<strong>in</strong> most of <strong>the</strong> consonantal changes <strong>in</strong>nordic languages: segments that <strong>in</strong>teract share most of <strong>the</strong>ir features and hence <strong>the</strong>y appearunder same node. In <strong>the</strong> vocalization process, /g/ ga<strong>in</strong>s stridency, i.e. become [+strident]. In<strong>the</strong> voic<strong>in</strong>g process, stops lose <strong>the</strong>ir aspiration (hence positive specification for [SG]) and ga<strong>in</strong>voic<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> same time, s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong>re is no phonological voiceless non aspirated <strong>in</strong> nordic.There is however one specific process <strong>the</strong> contrastive hierarchy fails to expla<strong>in</strong>:gem<strong>in</strong>ation. Examples <strong>in</strong> (3) show <strong>the</strong> treatment of voiceless stops gem<strong>in</strong>ates across nordiclanguages. As we can see datas exhibit variation from a language to ano<strong>the</strong>r:(3). V /pp/ V V /tt/ V V /kk/ VIcelandic /lappa/ [lahpa] patch <strong>in</strong>f. /fatta/ [fahta] catch <strong>in</strong>f. /θakka/ [θahka] thank <strong>in</strong>f.Faroese /lɛappi/ [lɛaʰpːi] patch, rag /kɛttəɹ/ [ʧɛʰtːəɹ] cat pl. /tɛakka/ [tɛaʰkːa] thank <strong>in</strong>f.Danish (lappe) 3 /lɑpə/ [lɑbə] patch <strong>in</strong>f. (fatte) /fatə/ [fadə] catch <strong>in</strong>f. (takke) /takə/ [tɑgə] thank <strong>in</strong>f.Swedish /lappa/ [lapːa] patch <strong>in</strong>f. /fatta/ [fatːa] catch <strong>in</strong>f. /takka/ [takːa] thank <strong>in</strong>f.Bokmål /lappe/ [lapːə] patch <strong>in</strong>f. /fatte/ [fatːə] catch <strong>in</strong>f. /takke/ [takːə] thank <strong>in</strong>f.1 We put <strong>the</strong> labial velar /w/ under <strong>the</strong> same specifications as /j/ : <strong>the</strong>y are both [+compact] and <strong>the</strong>ir behaviorsacross nordic languages are very similar.2 After [+strident] Icelandic needs an extra contrast, namely [±voice], <strong>in</strong> order to dist<strong>in</strong>guish between coronalfricatives /s/ and /ð/. The former is common to every nordic languages but <strong>the</strong> latter is present only <strong>in</strong>Icelandic.3 We give for Danish orthographic forms. This will be relevant later.