A comparison of Japanese and Blackfoot vowel devoicing
| dc.contributor.author | St. Goddard, Rosalind | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-06-24T21:34:36Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-06-24T21:34:36Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2014-09 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper compares and contrasts the factors that contribute to devoicing in Japanese and Blackfoot. Japanese vowel devoicing has received rigorous discussion in linguistic literature. Tsuchida (2001) provides a particularly persuasive argument for Japanese vowel devoicing using the Optimality Theory Framework (Prince and Smolensky 2004); she argues that all Japanese voiceless fricatives are specified for [SG] and devoicing occurs when this [SG] feature is shared within a syllable. The notion that voiceless vowels carry the feature [SG] can also be extended to instances of Blackfoot vowel devoicing. Blackfoot voiceless vowels generally occur in two contexts: They occur word finally, and word-medially when they are followed by the palatal/dorsal sounds [x]/[ç], which are orthographically represented as <h>. In contrast to Japanese voiceless fricatives, it appears that not all Blackfoot voiceless fricatives distribute the [SG] feature. The Blackfoot palatal fricative [ç] and the dorsal fricative [x] both trigger devoicing, whereas the fricative [s] does not. To explain this patterning of [x] and [ç], Reis Silva (2008) argues that [x] and [ç] are not fricatives, but rather preaspiration ([SG]) specified on certain obstruents. In this paper, I will discuss the constraints proposed in Tsuchida (2001), and extend/adapt those constraints to Blackfoot word final vowel devoicing. Additionally, In my analysis of Blackfoot word-medial vowel devoicing, I will adopt Reis Silva’s (2008) analysis that [x]/[ç] are not fricatives, but preaspiration specified on obstruents. Lastly, I argue that the word-medial vowel devoicing that occurs with [x] and [ç] is phonological rather than phonetic. | en_US |
| dc.description.refereed | Yes | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | St. Goddard, R. (2014). A comparison of Japanese and Blackfoot vowel devoicing. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 28(Fall), 81-96. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28984 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2371-2643 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51476 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Calgary | en_US |
| dc.publisher.department | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Arts | en_US |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Calgary | en_US |
| dc.subject | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.subject | Algonquian languages | en_US |
| dc.subject | Blackfoot | en_US |
| dc.subject | Siksika language | en_US |
| dc.subject | Japanese language | en_US |
| dc.subject | Phonology | en_US |
| dc.subject | Optimality theory (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Constraints (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Distinctive features (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.title | A comparison of Japanese and Blackfoot vowel devoicing | en_US |
| dc.type | journal article |