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Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages
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Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 2080

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Irene Vogel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
Interests: phonology; prosody; phonetics; morphology
Dr. Laura Spinu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Communications & Performing Arts, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
Interests: phonetics; phonology; speech perception and production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are guest editing a special volume of Languages to be entitled "Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages".  As the subject line suggests, we are writing to inquire whether you would be interested in contributing an original research paper pertaining to the topic indicated by the title.

While there are a number of books and publications pertaining to the linguistic study of Romance languages, there tends to be an under-representation of contributions focusing specifically on their phonetic and phonological properties and structures. The present volume will address this concern, bringing together original research papers on any Romance language/s that address phonological and/or phonetic issues.

As indicated in the title of the volume, we are especially interested in contributions that highlight issues of complexity - which may be interpreted as phenomena that are indeed complex, or phenomena that might seem complex but that may actually turn out to be quite straight-forward when analyzed in a particular way. These may be addressed from theoretical and/or experimental perspectives.

In order to permit us to advance the plans for the volume, we request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit an email to guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) expressing interest with a tentative title and 2-3 sentences about the topic, and subsequently, the proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution, along with a list of the references appearing in your text. The references and any figures may appear on a separate page and do not contribute to the word count. Please send your abstract to the guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Prof. Dr. Irene Vogel
Dr. Laura Spinu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • linguistic complexity
  • phonetics
  • phonology
  • Romance linguistics
 

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 1546 KiB  
Article
Articulatory Characteristics of Secondary Palatalization in Romanian Fricatives
by Laura Spinu, Alexei Kochetov and Maida Percival
Languages 2024, 9(6), 201; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060201 - 31 May 2024
Abstract
The production of fricatives involves the complex interaction of articulatory constraints resulting from the formation of the appropriate oral constriction, the control of airflow through the constriction so as to achieve frication and, in the case of voiced fricatives, the maintenance of glottal [...] Read more.
The production of fricatives involves the complex interaction of articulatory constraints resulting from the formation of the appropriate oral constriction, the control of airflow through the constriction so as to achieve frication and, in the case of voiced fricatives, the maintenance of glottal oscillation by attending to transglottal pressure. To better understand this mechanism in a relatively understudied language, we explore the articulatory characteristics of five pairs of plain and palatalized Romanian fricatives produced by 10 native speakers using ultrasound imaging. Our analysis includes an assessment of the robustness of the plain-palatalized contrast at different places of articulation, a comparison of secondary palatalization with other relevant word-final [Ci] structures, and the identification of individual variation patterns. Since our study is the first to document the articulatory properties of secondary palatalization in Romanian, our findings are of descriptive interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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46 pages, 2878 KiB  
Article
A Stratal Phonological Analysis of Stem-Level and Word-Level Effects in Old French Compensatory Vowel Lengthening upon Coda /s/ Deletion
by Francisco Antonio Montaño
Languages 2024, 9(5), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050177 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 534
Abstract
The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, [...] Read more.
The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, examining their interaction with stress assignment, vowel quality, schwa adjustment, prothesis, and morphological structure. The Stratal OT analysis formalizes the proposed pattern differentiating the long and short vowel reflexes identified especially for mid vowels: while categorical in tonic syllables and low vowels /a, ɑ/ irrespective of stress, lengthening only prevails in atonic mid vowels when coda /s/ deletion impacts a syllable assigned stress within the specific stratal phonological cycle when /s/ is deleted from input. The resulting length is transmitted and preserved in subsequent stratal cycles regardless of eventual word-level stress reassignment, especially (but not exclusively) because of word-level schwa adjustment, allowing a shift to word-final stress and producing an opacity effect of a long atonic mid vowel inherited from an earlier cycle. The stratal account formalizes observed analogical effects between lexical items and derived forms with respect to vowel quality and length and proposes them to result instead from the interplay of morphology and phonology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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24 pages, 4100 KiB  
Article
Robustness and Complexity in Italian Mid Vowel Contrasts
by Margaret E. L. Renwick
Languages 2024, 9(4), 150; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040150 - 18 Apr 2024
Viewed by 779
Abstract
Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering [...] Read more.
Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering the lexicon, linguistic structure, usage, and regional variety. The Italian mid vowels are marginally contrastive due to a scarcity of minimal pairs alongside variation in phonetic realization. The analysis considers corpus data, which indicate that the marginal contrasts among front vowels vs. back vowels are driven by different sources and forces. Functional loads are low; while front /e ɛ/ have the weakest lexical contrast among all Italian vowels, back /o ɔ/ are separated by somewhat more minimal pairs. Among stressed front vowels, height is predicted by syllable structure and is context-dependent in some Italian varieties. Meanwhile, the height of back mid vowels is predicted by lexical frequency, in line with expectations of phonetic reduction in high-frequency contexts. For both front and back vowels, the phonetic factor of duration predicts vowel height, especially in closed syllables, suggesting its use for contrast enhancement. The results have implications for a proposed formalization of Italian mid vowel variation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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