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INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL CONTACT LIMITS PHONOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY: EVIDENCE FROM BUNCHED AND RETROFLEX /ʁ/.
- Source :
-
Language . Mar2016, Vol. 92 Issue 1, p101-140. 40p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- We compare the complexity of idiosyncratic sound patterns involving American English /ʁ/ with the relative simplicity of clear/dark /l/-allophony patterns found in English and other languages. For /ʁ/, we report an ultrasound-based articulatory study of twenty-seven speakers of American English. Two speakers use only retroflex /ʁ/, sixteen use only bunched /ʁ/, and nine use both /ʁ/ types, with idiosyncratic allophonic distributions. These allophony patterns are covert, because the difference between bunched and retroflex /ʁ/ is not readily perceived by listeners. We compare this typology of /l/-allophony patterns to clear/dark /l/-allophony patterns in seventeen languages. On the basis of the observed patterns, we show that individual-level /ʁ/allophony and language-level /l/ allophony exhibit similar phonetic grounding, but that /ʁ/-allophony patterns are considerably more complex. The low complexity of language-level /l/-allophony patterns, which are more readily perceived by listeners, is argued to be the result of individual-level contact in the development of sound patterns. More generally, we argue that familiar phonological patterns (which are relatively simple and homogeneous within communities) may arise from individual-level articulatory patterns, which may be complex and speaker-specific, by a process of koineization. We conclude that two classic properties of phonological rules, phonetic naturalness and simplicity, arise from different sources.* [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *PHONOLOGY
*ALLOPHONES
*ENGLISH language
*PHONETICS
*NATURALNESS (Linguistics)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00978507
- Volume :
- 92
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Language
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 113758166
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0019