Speaker: Michael Kenstowicz and Filomena Sandalo
Title: Vowel Harmony and Dispersion in Brazilian Portuguese
Time: Tuesday 3/8, 5-6pm, 32-D831
Like Standard Italian, Brazilian Portuguese distinguishes seven vowels in stressed syllables. The inventory is reduced to five in unstressed syllables (through merger of open and closed mid vowels) and to just three in unstressed final syllables (through merger of mid and high vowels). Earlier phonetic studies of Major (1986) and Clegg & Fails (1992) find that the duration of vowels as well as the relative openness of the low vowel decreases in the order stressed > medial unstressed > final. Flemming (2004) points to these data as support for his dispersion theory of vowel inventories where the neutralization of contrasts results from the interplay of constraints on articulatory effort and phonetic distance. The earlier literature does not consider the behavior of pretonic syllables where the open vs. closed mid vowel contrast is also neutralized but a height harmony process occurs that disperses the mid vowels to three values as a function of the height of the following stressed syllable. The result is a phonetic inventory of seven vowels in pretonic position. Our presentation is a progress report on a study of the harmony process and its potential bearing on the dispersion theory.
Upcoming talks:
Mar 8: Michael Kenstowicz and Filomena Sandalo
Mar 15: AVAILABLE
Mar 29: Sverre Johnsen
Apr 5: Anne-Michelle Tessier
Apr 12: Ricardo Bermudez-Otero
Apr 13, 3-5pm: WCCFL Practice Talks ***Note Special Day and Time
Apr 26: Jongho Jun
May 3: Nina Topintzi
May 10: AVAILABLE (RUMMIT Practice Talks)
You can view the current, up-to-date version of the schedule here (click ‘agenda’ to see the schedule as a list), or subscribe via iCal here.