Consonant harmony in Nilotic: contrastive specifications and Stratal OT

Abstract

Through analyses of dental harmony in four Nilotic languages, this paper argues both for contrastive representations and for a stratal version of Optimality Theory. Dholuo, Päri, Shilluk and Anywa all have dental harmony patterns which bar the co-occurrence of dental and alveolar segments. Details of the dental harmony patterning vary between languages and are tied to contrasts in the inventory. In Anywa, harmony is non-structure-preserving and an allophonic dental nasal surfaces in harmonic forms. This pattern can be analyzed in a stratal model of OT but leads to a ranking paradox if only a single level of evaluation is used. Further support for a stratal analysis can be found in the interaction between harmony and consonant mutation processes in the four languages. In Dholuo, harmony applies at the stem level and consonant mutation results in disharmonic surface forms in morphologically complex words. In Anywa, harmony applies later, at the word level, and words formed through consonant mutation must obey the dental harmony restrictions.

The phonologisation of redundancy: length and quality in Welsh vowels

“…In the case of Welsh, I have not included moraic or other quantity specifications in the contrastive hierarchy. It is, however, clear that if the analysis of quantity laid out in section 2.2 moraic specifications are ¹⁴See also, for instance, Mackenzie (2016) for discussion of the relationship between contrastive specification and stratal computation. 49 contrastive in the 'm-phonemic' sense, since moraic and nonmoraic /n l r/ are underlyingly distinct; thus, the case treated here should not be problematic for contrastivist approaches.…”

“…See also, for instance,Mackenzie (2016) for discussion of the relationship between contrastive specification and stratal computation.…”

Ternary vowel length in Shilluk

“… 3 Remijsen et al (2011: 113) note a few forms that violate this consonantal place harmony. However, we have since realised that these forms are actually harmonic, in line with Mackenzie (2016), and we take this opportunity to set the record straight. The correct transcriptions for the nouns in the dental row in (5) of Remijsen et al are /n̪û́uut̪̄/, /d̪ûuut̪-ɔ̀/ and /t̪ùuut̪/.…”

“…First, dental and alveolar obstruents do not co-occur within the phonological word (cf. Mackenzie 2016). 3 Second, voicing in plosives is not contrastive in the stem-final consonant.…”

On the nature of adjectives: evidence from Dinka

“…Also present are liquids /l, r/ and semivowels /ɰ, j, w/; the language has no fricatives. Dinka generally exhibits consonant place harmony (Mackenzie 2016), though this may not be entirely true for the Bor dialects. Dinka has seven phonemic vowels: /i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u/.…”