The Typology of the Distribution of Edge: the propensity for bipositionality
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004423
January 2016
We discuss the grammatical conditions that can be imposed between segmental content (features) and syllable structure (positions) and how a representational preference can influence diachronic development. The discussion centers on the co-distribution of two properties: occlusivity and bipositionality. The first is the phonological feature that induces occlusivity and reduces amplitude (Edge(*)), the second is the autosegmental structural property of belonging to multiple positions (C.C). Edge(*) and bipositionality have a universal affinity but they are not reducible to each other. Instead, the inherent diachronic tendency to preserve Edge(*) in bipositional structures becomes grammaticalised through licensing conditions that dictate the alignment of the two properties. This can be expressed bidirectionally forming two major language types. Type A has the condition stated from the featural perspective (Edge(*) must be found in C.C). While, Type B comes from the other direction (C.C must contain Edge(*)). Crucially, the same structure is diachronically stable: (Edge(*)- C.C). What varies is the distribution of those properties elsewhere (given the direction of licensing condition). Type A excludes Edge(*) from {#__,V_V}, while Type B excludes C.Cs without Edge(*). Although there is variation on this point, there is a UG component, because there are no anti-Type A/B languages where Edge(*) repels bipositionality.

Not as you R: Adapting the French rhotic into Arabic and Berber
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004422
January 2019
This article examines the adaptation of the French rhotic in Arabic and Berber. In loanwords borrowed from French, the uvular fricative is systematically interpreted as a coronal tap, despite the fact that Arabic and Berber have phonemic /?/ and /?/. We argue that this phenomenon is determined by phonological rather than phonetic factors. We show that Tashlhiyt Berber and Moroccan Arabic speakers, including monolinguals, are able to identify the French r as a sonorant, based on their native phonology, where many co-occurrence restrictions are analyzed in terms of sonority-sensitive dependency relations between the most sonorous segment and its neighboring segments.

The Amazigh influence on Moroccan Arabic: Phonological and morphological borrowing
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004421
January 2018
This paper outlines some of the main phonological and morphological features that Moroccan Arabic has developed in contact with Amazigh. Based on previous work, it is argued that Moroccan Arabic has lost the Classical Arabic short vowels and has developed a short central vowel, used break up illicit consonant clusters. It is shown that the distribution of this schwa-like vowel is better analysed within a strict CV model where ungoverned empty vocalic positions surface at the phonetic level. In the same vein, it is proposed that the Classical Arabic short [u] is kept in Moroccan Arabic as a labial feature when it occurs in the vicinity of a labial, velar or uvular consonant. Sibilant harmony is another feature that Moroccan Arabic shares with Amazigh. It is analysed as a long distance process which occurs within a specific domain, consisting of the stem template, plus an empty initial CV. This empty site allows for the Moroccan Arabic definite article and the Amazigh causative prefix to harmonize with the stem sibilant. The influence of Amazigh on Moroccan Arabic is also visible at the morphological level. We discuss the behaviour of the circumfix /ta…-t/, which Moroccan Arabic borrowed as an unanalysed complex, used to form abstract and profession nouns.

The left edge of the word in the Berber derivational morphology
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004420
January 2017
In many Berber varieties, causative and reciprocal verbs are built by means of monoconsonantal prefixes attached to a stem. These prefixes are realized as single or geminated depending on the properties of the stem. In this paper, it is argued that an initial templatic site is responsible for the length variation of the prefixes. Under specific licensing conditions, the initial site hosts the causative and the reciprocal prefixes by means of two distinct operations, namely movement and spreading. Moreover, complex combinations of those prefixes (causative + reciprocal, reciprocal + causative) feed apparently unrelated phenomena of selective harmony and dissimilation. They are argued to follow directly from the use of the initial site as part of the verb domain. Handled in syntactic structure, the initial site further allows accounting for the cooccurrence restrictions that the causative and the imperfective markers undergo: it is proposed that the causative takes precedence over the imperfective because it is generated lower in the structure under the vP. The same reasoning holds for the incompatibility of imperfective gemination with the reciprocal marker. It is precisely this type of restrictions that strictly phonological analyses fail to address.

On diminutives and plurals in Moroccan Arabic
Mohamed Lahrouchi, Rachid Ridouane
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004419
January 2015
In Moroccan Arabic, like in many other Afroasiatic languages, a single noun may have more than one plural form. For instance, t??s?wera ‘photo’ has plurals t?s?aw?r and
t??s?werat. Morphologically speaking, these are genuine plurals referring to what Semitists commonly call broken and sound plurals or internal and external plurals. From
a semantic perspective, however, sound plurals indicate a definite number usually occurring with numerals, whereas the corresponding broken plurals have collective read
ings. This study presents an interface approach which aims to determine the structural location of number and capture the empirical contrast between broken and sound plu
rals. It is argued that the sound plurals are associated with the standard Num projection, whereas the broken plurals are associated lower in the structure with the n pr
ojection. External evidence for this analysis is drawn from the phenomenon of emphasis spread. The nP is presented as the maximal domain of emphasis spread in nouns.

On the internal structure of Tashlhiyt Berber triconsonantal roots
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004417
March 2008
This article examines the internal structure of triconsonantal roots in Tashlhiyt Berber. It is proposed that these roots have a binary-branch- ing head-complement struc
ture, built upon the sonorant and the seg- ment immediately to its left. Evidence for this structure is provided by the imperfective formation. It is argued that only ro
ots that display such a structure undergo gemination in the imperfective. This permits an account for a number of forms that are traditionally ascribed to lexical idiosy
ncrasy, including verbs that are made up entirely of ob- struents and those whose only sonorant is in initial position.

A templatic approach to gemination in the imperfective stem of Tashlhiyt Berber
Mohamed Lahrouchi
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004416
March 2007
Tashlhiyt Berber uses, among other processes, gemination to form the imperfective. Most accounts of this phenomenon make reference to syllabic or prosodic structure. In
this paper, I diverge from this trend, claiming that imperfective gemination is better analyzed as a templatic-based phenomenon resulting from morphological activity at
the skeletal tier. I will argue for the use in the imperfective of a fixed-shape template over which consonant gemination is realized. Moreover, I will show that tri-, b
i- and monoconsonantal verbs share the same template. The sur- face irregularity that bi- and monoconsonantal verbs display is viewed as the consequence of the identific
ation of templatic positions.

Segmental Phonetics and Phonology in Caucasian Langauges
Gasper Begus
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004402
January 2019
This article surveys the major topics of Caucasian phonetics and phonology focusing on those aspects that bear broader implications for general phonetics and phonological theory. The article first presents an acoustic phonetic treatment of phonemic inventories in the three Caucasian families that involves both a review of recent instrumental data on the topic as well as a new analysis of experimental acoustic data. The focus of the phonetic analysis is obstruents with different laryngeal features, typologically unusual segments, small vocalic inventories, and pharyngealization. The second part reviews treatments of Caucasian phonotactics, primarily of South Caucasian consonant clusters that play a crucial role in the discussion on production vs.~perception in phonology. The article concludes with a collection of phonological alternations that have the potential to bear broader theoretical implications.

Phonological regularity, perceptual biases, and the role of phonotactics in speech error analysis
John Alderete, Paul Tupper
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004388
June 2018
Speech errors involving manipulations of sounds tend to be phonologically regular in the sense that they obey the phonotactic rules of well-formed words. We review the empirical evidence for phonological regularity in prior research, including both categorical assessments of words and regularity at the granular level involving specific segments and contexts. Since the reporting of regularity is affected by human perceptual biases, we also document this regularity in a new data set of 2,228 sublexical errors that was collected using methods that are demonstrably less prone to bias. These facts validate the claim that sound errors are overwhelmingly regular, but the new evidence suggests speech errors admit more phonologically ill-formed words than previously thought. Detailed facts of the phonological structure of errors, including this revised standard, are then related to model assumptions in contemporary theories of phonological encoding.

Phrase-level Prosodic Smothering in Makonde
Nicholas Rolle, Larry M. Hyman
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004378
December 2018
This paper focuses on the issue of ‘prosodic idiosyncrasies’ as it arises in the Bantu language Makonde [kde]. Recently, Bennett, Harizanov, & Henderson (2018) proposed
‘prosodic smothering’, whereby prosodic requirements of an outer morpheme override (i.e. ‘smother’) prosodic properties of inner morphemes. We extend their analysis to p
hrase-level phonology in Makonde. Previous description has established that whether a nominal modifier forms a single phonological phrase ? with the noun is an idiosyncr
atic property, e.g. a [NOUN ADJECTIVE] phrase maps to 2 phonological phrases ?(N) ?(ADJ) while a [NOUN DEMONSTRATIVE] phrase forms a single phonological phrase ?(N DEM).
Prosodic smothering is seen in [NOUN ADJ DEM] sequences which form a single ?(N ADJ DEM) phonological phrase, where the ADJ has been ‘entrapped’ and its prosody ‘smothe
red’. We highlight three contributions which Makonde makes to understanding smothering: (i) smothering targets the lexical head, (ii) smothering is both inward-oriented
(a morphological relation) and leftward-oriented (a linear relation), and (iii) a limited amount of outward smothering is parasitic on the presence of inward smothering.
From the smothering facts in Makonde, we conclude that prosody is established at two stages: first, prosodic idiosyncrasies apply at spell-out (i.e. the mapping from sy
ntax to phonology), followed by default prosodification which is established within the phonological module itself.