Abruzzese metaphony and the |A| eater

Roberta D'Alessandro, Marc van Oostendorp

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Metaphony in Ariellese, an Italo-Romance variety of the Abruzzese group, targets masculine nouns, and is neither only morphological nor only lexical: it is instead the result of a synchronic phonological process, consisting in adding a mora to the word to express the plural morpheme. This mora needs to be linked to a segment. The stressed vowel, being the most prominent unit, is the obvious candidate. More specifically, the chosen segment is the most sonorant element in the nucleus, i.e. the |A| element. In order to keep a correct syllabic structure, |A| will need to be detached from its original mora. The result will be both the realization of the remaining element in the stressed syllable, bearing a metaphonic “effect” and, when in phrasal configuration, the realization of the |A| element in the extrametrical position.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationApproaches to metaphony in the languages of Italy
EditorsFrancesc Torres-Tamarit, Kathrnin Linke, Marc van Oostendorp
Place of PublicationBerlin/Boston
PublisherDe Gruyter Mouton
Pages349-368
ISBN (Print)978-3-11-036956-4
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Publication series

NamePhonology and Phonetics
Volume20

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