Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt

210 Pages·2017·10.13 MB·English

by  Timo B. Roettger

Tonal placement
in Tashlhiyt
How an intonation system
accommodates to adverse
phonological environments
Timo B. Roettger
language
Studies in Laboratory Phonology 3 science
press
StudiesinLaboratoryPhonology
ChiefEditor: MartineGrice
Editors:DorisMücke,TaehongCho
Inthisseries:
1. Cangemi,Francesco. ProsodicdetailinNeapolitanItalian.
2. Drager,Katie. Linguisticvariation,identityconstruction,andcognition.
3. Roettger,TimoB.TonalplacementinTashlhiyt:Howanintonationsystemaccommodates
toadversephonologicalenvironments.
ISSN:2363-5576
Tonal placement
in Tashlhiyt
How an intonation system
accommodates to adverse
phonological environments
Timo B. Roettger
language
science
press
TimoB.Roettger.2017.TonalplacementinTashlhiyt:Howanintonationsystem
accommodatestoadversephonologicalenvironments(StudiesinLaboratory
Phonology3).Berlin:LanguageSciencePress.
Thistitlecanbedownloadedat:
http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/137
©2017,TimoB.Roettger
PublishedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution4.0Licence(CCBY4.0):
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
ISBN:978-3-944675-99-2(Digital)
978-3-96110-008-8(Hardcover)
978-3-96110-009-5(Softcover)
ISSN:2363-5576
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.814472
Coverandconceptofdesign:UlrikeHarbort
Typesetting:SebastianNordhoff,TimoB.Roettger
Illustration:SebastianNordhoff
Proofreading: AlexisMichaud,AmrZawawy,AndreasHölzl,EitanGrossman,
EranAsoulin,IkmiNurOktavianti,JasonMattausch,KlaraKim,MariaIsabel
Maldonado,MykeBrinkerhoff,TeresaProto
Fonts:LinuxLibertine,Arimo,DejaVuSansMono
Typesettingsoftware:XƎLATEX
LanguageSciencePress
UnterdenLinden6
10099Berlin,Germany
langsci-press.org
StorageandcataloguingdonebyFUBerlin
LanguageSciencePresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyInternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Listofabbreviations xi
1 Hicsuntdracones 1
2 Theoreticalbackground 5
2.1 Phoneticsandphonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Suprasegmentalphonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 Prosodicstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 Intonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Tonalevents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1 Edgetones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.2 Pitchaccents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 Tune-text-association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4.1 Tune-text-adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4.2 Therepresentationoftune-text-adjustments . . . . . . . 23
2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3 Tashlhiyt,aBerberlanguage 31
3.1 TheImazighen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Historicaloverview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 BerberinAgadir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.4 Tashlhiyt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4.1 Orthography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4.2 Phonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4.3 Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.4.4 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 WordstressinTashlhiyt 43
4.1 Wordstress:aworkingdefinition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Contents
4.2 EvidenceforwordstressinTashlhiyt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.1 Earlyobservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.2 GordonandNafi(2012) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Productionstudy:WordstressinTashlhiytrevisited . . . . . . . 48
4.3.1 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5 TheintonationofquestionsandcontrastivefocusinTashlhiyt 61
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.2 Theoreticalbackground:questionsandfocus . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.1 Questions:aworkingdefinition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.2 Focus:aworkingdefinition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3 Theintonationofquestionsandfocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.3.1 Theintonationofquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.3.2 Theintonationoffocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.3.3 Intonationaldifferencesbetweenmarkingquestionsand
markingfocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4 Questions and contrastive focus in Tashlhiyt: qualitative obser-
vations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.4.1 QuestionsinTashlhiyt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.4.2 ContrastivefocusinTashlhiyt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.4.3 Intonationaldifferencesbetweenflaggingquestionsand
markingcontrastivefocusinTashlhiyt . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.5 Productionstudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.5.1 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.5.2 Results:pitchscaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.5.3 Results:pitchpeaktiming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.5.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.6 Perceptionstudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.6.1 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.6.2 Resultsanddiscussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6 Tonalplacementinadversephonologicalenvironments 97
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.2 Tonalplacementinabsenceofsonorants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.3 ThestatusofschwainTashlhiyt:areview . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.3.1 Theepentheticvowelaccount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
iv
Contents
6.3.2 Thetransitionalvocoidaccount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.4 Productionstudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.4.1 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.4.2 Resultsanddiscussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.5 Thestatusofschwarevisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.5.1 Schwaasasociolinguisticmarker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.5.2 Schwaasreflectinggesturalreorganisation . . . . . . . 119
6.5.3 Schwaasaprosodicmarker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7 Towardsanintonationalanalysis 131
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.2 Recapitulationofobservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.3 Analysisoftherise-falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.3.1 Rise-falls in Tashlhiyt: primary association to prosodic
constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
7.3.2 Theinternalstructureoftherise-fall . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3.3 Secondaryassociationtotonebearingunits . . . . . . . 141
7.4 Formalisingvariability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.4.1 Discretevariabilityinintonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.4.2 Gradientvariabilityinintonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8 Concludingremarksandfuturedirections 153
8.1 Tonalplacementwithoutwordstress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.2 Phonotacticrestrictionsontonalplacement. . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.3 Futuredirections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Appendix 161
A.1 MediaAccess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
A.2 ParticipantInformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
References 163
Index 183
Nameindex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Languageindex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Subjectindex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
v

Acknowledgements
The person I would like to express my deepest gratitude to is my supervisor
MartineGrice.Shewasmymostimportantadvisorthroughmyacademiclifeand
sheconstantlyadvancedmydevelopmentwithheruniqueandcharmingwayof
givingmefeedback.Fromher,Ilearnedhowtoasktherightquestionsandhow
tocommunicatethesequestionsinapreciseanddiplomaticway.Martinealways
provided the right amount of support and pressure I needed, while leaving me
greatfreedominfindingmywaythroughthejungleofacademia.Shealwayshad
anearforanykindofproblem,beitoverlydramaticdoubtsaboutthescientific
methoditselforbeitbeinglostintheprocessofwriting.Shealwaysbelievedin
meandmydevelopmentasascientistandcheeredmeuponcloudydays.Itruly
believe she did not only make me a good linguist but will always be a personal
rolemodel.Thankyou,Martine.
I would like to express my gratitude to Rachid Ridouane. He constantly ad-
vanced my understanding of Tashlhiyt and generously introduced me to his
home in Morocco, to his culture, and to his heritage. He led me through the
depths of the Agadir Souk, taught me the art of pouring Moroccan tea, and
warmly welcomed me in the midst of his family and friends. I am very grate-
fultothesememories.Thankyou,Rachid.
IalsothankallmembersofthefacultyofAmazighstudiesattheIbnZohrUni-
versity in Agadir. Without the help of the faculty, none of the data could have
been collected. In this context, one man deserves particular credit: Abderrah-
mane Charki helped us find consultants, organise our recordings, and conduct
our experiments. Even though he constantly ate all the chocolate that was sup-
posed to be for our consultants, he did a terrific job and made my life in the
fieldmucheasier. Iamveryhappytohavemethim. Generally,Iamgratefulto
all consultants that patiently participated in my tiresome experiments. It was a
beautifulexperiencefullofpositivityandsupport.Tenemmirt,Agadir.
Bodo Winter has played a major role in my scientific and personal develop-
ment. He was always two steps ahead of me and that way sparked my interest
withhisenthusiasticandpositivewayoflookingatthings.Overthemanyyears,
hehasbecomemyteacherandadearfriend.
Acknowledgements
ThefirstpersontoincubatemyearlyinterestinlanguagewasKayGonzález-
Vilbazo. He taught the introduction to linguistics at the department of German
language and literature in Cologne. He told us the most interesting narratives
about the mesmerising nature of Universal Grammar, genetically endowed lan-
guage acquisition devices, and sign language development in Nicaragua. I was
instantlyhookedduetohisconvincingandinspiringway. WhileIhavestarted
questioninghisviewontolanguage,cognition,andevolutionshortlyafter,Iam
eternally grateful to have had him as one of my first university teachers. He
sparkedtheflameandmademewanttobecomealinguist.
Jan Menge has been an inspiring character in my development as a linguist.
Unfortunately,Janhaslongleftthefieldoflinguistics. Idon’tthinkheisaware
of the major impact he has had on my professional career. During my days as
anundergraduate,heusedtoalwaysputmyknow-it-allalluresintoperspective,
challengedme,andshowedmealternativeviews.Iamverygratefultohim.
I would like to thank Frank Domahs to put his faith in an overly-motivated
undergraduate. I met Frank in 2007 during a research internship at the neuro-
logical department of Aachen. He believed in my abilities to conduct my first
full-fledgedpsycholinguisticsexperiment. Despitemebeingterrifiedofwriting
inEnglish,hepersuadedmetowriteuptheresults. Thewrite-upturnedoutto
bemyfirstjournalpublicationandgavemeimportantinsightsintothescientific
machinery.
Alongside these amazing scholars, I had many great teachers that I encoun-
teredduringmyacademicjourney.ManythanksgotoBeatricePrimus,whosaw
potentialinapresumptuousundergraduateandhiredmeasastudentassistant.I
wouldliketothankWalterHuberandRichardWiesetogivemetheopportunity
to have a first peak into neurolinguistic methods in Aachen and in Marburg. I
amgratefultoNikolausHimmelmannwhofortunatelywasmyteacherforacou-
pleofyears.Hetaughtmealotaboutthelinguisticcraftsmanshipandscientific
integrity. Many thanks go to James Kirby who was my most important advisor
duringmyyearinEdinburgh.Patiently,hespenthoursondiscussingdatawith
me and always gave me great advice. He continued to be a colleague and has
becomeafriend.BesidestheexchangewithJames,Icannotvaluemystudentex-
perienceinEdinburghhighenough. TheSchoolofPhilosophy, Psychologyand
LanguageScienceisabeautifulandinspiringplaceandhostsremarkableteach-
ers. I did not only learn a lot about a multitude of different topics, but learned
howcommunicatingknowledgeisdoneright. ThankyouAliceTurk,BobLadd,
SimonKirby,GraemeTrousdale,AntonellaSorace,andJamesHurford.
viii