Laryngeal Relativism predicts Italian

Abstract

Two-way laryngeal systems are classified by Laryngeal Realism into [voice] languages (or “L-systems”, e.g., Slavic, Romance) and [spread glottis] ([sg]; or aspiration) languages (or “H-systems”, e.g., the typical Germanic pattern). More recently, Cyran (2014) has proposed Laryngeal Relativism (LR), claiming that phonetic interpretation is arbitrary, and as a result, two phonetically identical systems, even two dialects of a language, may turn out to diverge phonologically. His example is Polish: while Warsaw Polish represents the typical [voice]/L-system, he analyses phonetically identical Cracow Polish as an H-system (counter to Laryngeal Realism’s uniform classification of Slavic languages). However, in the “classical” version of [sg] languages (e.g., English), no laryngeal activity in the form of any kind of spreading is attested, which suggests the absence of any source element and, instead, a dominant role of obstruency (|h|). We, therefore, arrive at a three-way typology: h-systems, H-systems and L-systems. At the same time, arbitrary phonetic interpretation in LR predicts the existence of, e.g., h-systems with virtually no aspiration in the fortis series. We claim that this is indeed the characterisation of Italian. Using data from potential feature spreading situations, elicited in loanword and foreign accent settings, we show that Italian is an h-system, exhibiting no true laryngeal activity.

Another fortis-lenis language: A reanalysis of Old English obstruents

“…Vaux (1998) for examples of spread of aspiration in Pali and Julfa Armenian). This question cannot be tackled here, but see Balogné Bérces & Huszthy (2018) for a possible reason involving MoE (a language very similar to OE).…”

The protection of particularly vulnerable victims in Hungarian national law

“…135 While the introduction of mediation was surrounded by some skepticism, 136 it has proved to be a working instrument over the years following some minor amendments and has not taken that 15 to 20 years as predicted by Bérces. 137 Rules of mediation live up to EU requirements and therefore the scope of it should not be extended to more serious crimes. Still there are ways to evolve.…”

The representation of voicing. A unified analysis of languages with two obstruent series as “aspirating” systems

“…38 Phonologically speaking, Italian can also be categorized as an aspirating language like English or Swedish, with the assumption that the difference only lies in how the two obstruent series are phonetically realized (see Balogné Bérces & Huszthy 2018and Huszthy 2019. This can account for why laryngeal behavior in this language does not conform to the pattern that characterizes the other Romance languages, regarded as typical Lsystems.…”

“…All in all, I hope to have shown in this subsection that even in OT, which has principles that appear to dictate the assumption of overspecification, we have no serious reason really to force two laryngeal features into the phonology of languages like Southern American English and Swedish. Although their plosives are indeed phonetically strongly aspirated or significantly voiced, the feature [spread glottis] or the element |H| will suffice to represent this contrast and to account for the potential laryngeal assimilations-for ET-based analyses in Laryngeal Relativism applying one melodic element to distinguish the two obstruent series in Swedish, see Cyran (2017), Balogné Bérces & Huszthy (2018) and Huszthy (2020).…”

“…These phonetic qualities characterize fricatives and affricates as well as released plosives. For analyses employing |h|, see, e.g., Harris (1994), Huber & Balogné Bérces (2010) and Balogné Bérces & Huszthy (2018). For further distinction, Harris (1994: 123-126) suggests that headed |h| mark greater stridency or noisiness, meaning that, for example, the strident /s/ should contain headed |h|, while the head of the phonological expression representing the nonstrident /θ/ should be the place element.…”