Hungarian vowel harmony in Optimality Theory

Ringen, Catherine; Vago, Robert M.

doi:10.1017/s0952675799003632

Cited by 55 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Booij 1984, Clements 1976, Dienes 1997, Esztergár 1971, Hare 1990, van der Hulst 1985, Kontra and Ringen 1986 ff. Kornai 1987, Morén 2006, Ringen 1978 ff., Ringen and Vago 1998ff., Vago 1976ff., Zonneveld 1980, inter alia).…”

Section: Antiharmonicityunclassified

Hungarian neutral vowels: A microcomparison

Blaho

Szeredi

2013

NLY

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In Hungarian, stems containing only front unrounded (neutral) vowels fall into two groups: one group taking front suffixes, the other taking back suffixes in vowel harmony. The distinction is traditionally thought of as purely lexical. Beňuš and Gafos (2007) have recently challenged this position, claiming that there are significant articulatory differences between the vowels in the two groups.Neutral vowels also occur in vacillating stems. These typically contain one back vowel and one or more neutral vowels, and accept both front and back suffixes, with extensive inter-and intra-speaker variation. Based on Beňuš and Gafos's line of argument, the expectation is that vacillating stems will display a kind of phonetic realisation that is distinct from both harmonic and anti-harmonic stems.We present the results of an ongoing acoustic study on the acoustics of neutral vowels, partly recreating Beňuš and Gafos's conditions, but also including vacillating stems. To map the extent of individual and dialectal variation regarding vacillating stems, a grammaticality judgement test was also carried out on speakers of two dialects of Hungarian, crucially differing in the surface inventory of neutral vowels. We present our first findings about how this phonetic difference influences the phonological behaviour of vacillating stems.

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Section: Antiharmonicityunclassified

Hungarian neutral vowels: A microcomparison

Blaho

Szeredi

2013

NLY

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“…(1) Vowel inventory of Hungarian (Ringen & Vago, 1998) 3 The phonological effects of vowel harmony are most readily observed in suffix vowel alternations. 4 For example, in (2) the [±back] quality of various suffixes is determined by the [±back] quality of the preceding stem vowel (Siptár & Törkenzy, 2000;Vago, 1980;van der Hulst, 1985 However, in Hungarian and other languages with vowel harmony, one also finds a set of socalled transparent vowels whose presence sometimes seems to have no effect on the choice of the suffix vowel.…”

Section: Transparency In Hungarian Vowel Harmonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Articulatory characteristics of Hungarian ‘transparent’ vowels

Beňuš

Gafos

2007

Journal of Phonetics

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Using a combination of magnetometry and ultrasound, we examined the articulatory characteristics of the so-called 'transparent' vowels [iː], [i], and [eː] in Hungarian vowel harmony. Phonologically, transparent vowels are front, but they can be followed by either front or back suffixes. However, a finer look reveals an underlying phonetic coherence in two respects. First, transparent vowels in back harmony contexts show a less advanced (more retracted) tongue body posture than phonemically identical vowels in front harmony contexts: e.g. [i] in buli-val is less advanced than [i] in bili-vel. Second, transparent vowels in monosyllabic stems selecting back suffixes are also less advanced than phonemically identical vowels in stems selecting front suffixes: e.g. [iː] in ír, taking back suffixes, compared to [iː] of hír, taking front suffixes, is less advanced when these stems are produced in bare form (no suffixes). We thus argue that the phonetic degree of tongue body horizontal position correlates with the phonological alternation in suffixes. A hypothesis that emerges from this work is that a plausible phonetic basis for transparency can be found in quantal characteristics of the relation between articulation and acoustics of transparent vowels. More broadly, the proposal is that the phonology of transparent vowels is better understood when their phonological patterning is studied together with their articulatory and acoustic characteristics.

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“…In vowel harmony, second-order restrictions emerge when the set of vowels that fail to spread their feature value, but the following vowels take the feature specification of the closest participating vowel. These vowels are said to be ‘transparent’ because active vowels will spread right through them (as in Hungarian, in which a back vowel will ‘spread’ is backness feature to another vowel when the front vowels /i/ or /e/ intervene (e.g., [radir-nak] ‘eraser’ DATIVE’ (Ringen & Vago, 1998))). Transparent vowels in vowel harmony are the only case of second-order non-locality in vowel harmony, and are highly restricted.…”

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The privileged status of locality in consonant harmony

Finley

2011

Journal of Memory and Language

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While the vast majority of linguistic processes apply locally, consonant harmony appears to be an exception. In this phonological process, consonants share the same value of a phonological feature, such as secondary place of articulation. In sibilant harmony, [s] and [ʃ] ('sh') alternate such that if a word contains the sound [ʃ], all [s] sounds become [ʃ]. This can apply locally as a first-order or non-locally as a second-order pattern. In the first-order case, no consonants intervene between the two sibilants (e.g., [pisasu], [piʃaʃu]). In second-order case, a consonant may intervene (e.g., [sipasu], [ʃipaʃu]). The fact that there are languages that allow second-order nonlocal agreement of consonant features has led some to question whether locality constraints apply to consonant harmony. This paper presents the results from two artificial grammar learning experiments that demonstrate the privileged role of locality constraints, even in patterns that allow second-order non-local interactions. In Experiment 1, we show that learners do not extend firstorder non-local relationships in consonant harmony to second-order nonlocal relationships. In Experiment 2, we show that learners will extend a consonant harmony pattern with second-order long distance relationships to a consonant harmony with first-order long distance relationships. Because second-order non-local application implies first-order non-local application, but firstorder non-local application does not imply second-order non-local application, we establish that local constraints are privileged even in consonant harmony.Locality constraints have played an important role in characterizing linguistic processes. In syntax, morphology and phonology, local processes tend to be privileged over non-local processes (Chomsky, 1981;Culicover & Wilkins, 1984). In phonology, the bias for local processes is based on phonetic restrictions. Many phonological processes are a result of coarticulation, which is the process of overlapping gestures of sounds (e.g., the [i] in [bin] carries some of the nasal properties of the final [n] consonant). Because coarticulation is likely to decrease over distance, phonologization of coarticulation is likely to be based on adjacent sounds (e.g., nasalization of the [i] but not the [b] in [bin], as coarticulation will not carry all the way to the first consonant) (Hyman, 1976;Ohala, 1994).In addition to phonetic principles, locality restrictions in language may have non-linguistic roots. For example, constraints on perception and memory may serve as a source for constraints on locality in language. General cognitive processes such as categorization and memory are often based on locality. Two objects are more likely to be placed in the same category if they are grouped closer together in space than a third object that is farther away. In memory, people use adjacency as part of memory aids, such as 'chunking' (e.g., phonePublisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publica...

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Hungarian vowel harmony in Optimality Theory

Cited by 55 publications

References 24 publications

Hungarian neutral vowels: A microcomparison

Hungarian neutral vowels: A microcomparison

Articulatory characteristics of Hungarian ‘transparent’ vowels

The privileged status of locality in consonant harmony

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