The phonetics and phonology of contrast : the case of the Romanian vowel system

214 Pages·2014·3.508 MB·English

by  Margaret E. L. Renwick

Margaret E. L. Renwick
The Phonetics and Phonology of Contrast
Phonology and Phonetics
Edited by
Aditi Lahiri
Volume 19
Margaret E. L. Renwick
The Phonetics
and Phonology
of Contrast
The Case of the Romanian Vowel System
DE GRUYTER
MOUTON
ISBN978-3-11-036215-2
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-036277-0
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-039476-4
ISSN1861-4191
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress.
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
©2014WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston
Printingandbinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck
♾Printedonacid-freepaper
PrintedinGermany
www.degruyter.com
|
for John

Foreword
It has been my pleasure and privilege to create this book. I am indebted to many
people who have helped it become a reality, beginning with those who assisted
in the intellectual endeavor and in data collection. I appreciate the invaluable
advice and guidance of Abby Cohn, Ioana Chitoran, Carol Rosen, Draga Zec, and
Sam Tilsen. Fieldwork would not have succeeded without the generous efforts
of my consultants in Romania and the United States, particularly Catalina
Iricinschi and the Oltean family: Ştefan, Liana, Andy, and Alina Cîmpean.
I am grateful for the encouragement of my family and closest friends. I must
also acknowledge the support of colleagues at Oxford University, in particular
Aditi Lahiri, and the detailed attention of Katja Lehming and Wolfgang Kon-
witschny at de Gruyter. Finally, I acknowledge the support of the University of
Georgia for the Provost’s Summer Research Grant which has allowed the prepa-
ration of this manuscript; and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Stud-
ies at Cornell University, which funded the dissertation research from which
this book has grown.

Margaret E. L. Renwick

Contents
Foreword | vii
1 Introduction | 1
1.1 Goals of this book | 1
1.2 Phonological contrast: Categorical or gradient? | 2
1.3 Romanian as a focus of study | 6
1.4 Romania and Romanian: A brief historical sketch | 9
1.4.1 History and its linguistic consequences | 9
1.4.2 Vowels: From Latin to Romanian | 11
1.5 Romanian phonemes | 12
1.6 Romanian: Typological considerations | 13
1.7 Structure of the book | 15
2 Relative frequency of Romanian phonemes | 17
2.1 Introduction | 17
2.2 Frequency of vowels in Romanian | 17
2.2.1 Type frequency analysis | 18
2.2.2 Relative frequencies of vowels | 21
2.2.3 Type frequency analysis of consonants | 24
2.2.4 Romanian vowels and their following segments | 25
2.3 The distribution of vowels in Romanian | 31
3 On the origins of /ɨ/ in Romanian | 33
3.1 Introduction | 33
3.1.1 Vowels: from Latin to Romanian | 35
3.1.2 A brief history of Romanian /ʌ/ | 36
3.2 Historical sources for /ɨ/: Latin | 38
3.2.1 Latin /a/  Romanian /ɨ/ | 39
3.2.2 Latin non-low vowels  Romanian /ɨ/ | 41
3.2.3 Other sources for /ɨ/ in native Romanian words | 43
3.3 Historical sources for /ɨ/: Words from Old Slavic etymons | 44
3.3.1 Old Slavic nasalized vowels | 45
3.3.2 Romanian treatment of Old Slavic liquid-jer metathesis | 47
3.3.3 Other Old Slavic sources for Romanian /ɨ/ | 48
3.3.4 /ɨ/ in Romanian infinitives | 51
3.4 Historical sources for /ɨ/: Modern Slavic loanwords | 52
3.4.1 Bulgarian sources for Romanian /ɨ/ | 52
x | Contents
3.4.2 Serbian sources for Romanian /ɨ/ | 54
3.4.3 Summarizing the effect of Slavic on Romanian /ɨ/ | 55
3.5 Hungarian loanwords in Romanian | 56
3.6 Turkish loanwords in Romanian | 57
3.7 Etymological sources for Romanian /ɨ/ | 60
3.8 Conclusions: /ɨ/ | 61
4 The distribution of /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ in Romanian | 63
4.1 Introduction | 63
4.2 Phonological status | 64
4.3 Type frequency | 67
4.4 Acoustics of /e̯a/ and /oa̯ / | 68
4.5 Frequency of diphthongs by context | 69
4.6 Frequency of /e̯a/ by context | 70
4.6.1 Morphologized /e̯a/ | 71
4.6.2 Lexical /e̯a/ | 73
4.7 Frequency of /o̯a/ by context | 75
4.7.1 Morphologized /o̯a/ | 76
4.7.2 Lexical /o̯a/ | 78
4.8 Summary: Consequences for contrastiveness | 80
5 Distributional evidence for marginal contrast | 84
5.1 Introduction | 84
5.2 The phonemic status of /ɨ/ | 85
5.2.1 Minimal pairs: /ɨ/ vs. /ʌ/ | 85
5.2.2 Roles reserved for /ɨ/ | 90
5.2.2.1 /ɨ/ in personal pronouns | 90
5.2.2.2 /ɨ/ in Romanian onomatopoeias | 92
5.3 Synchronic distribution and role of /ɨ/ | 94
5.3.1 Non-minimal contrasts: Evidence from frequency | 94
5.3.2 /ɨ/ vs /i/ in word-initial position | 96
5.4 Conclusions | 99
6 Acoustics of Romanian monophthongs | 101
6.1 Introduction | 101
6.2 Experimental methodology | 104
6.2.1 Stimuli | 104
6.2.2 Data labeling | 108
6.2.3 Data extraction and analysis | 109
6.2.4 Participants | 109