Speaker: Boer Fu (MIT)
Title: The Emergence of Alternation in A Mandarin Language Game
Time: Monday, October 19th, 5pm – 6:30pm
Abstract: The palatal consonants in Mandarin, tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ, as a group, are in complementary distribution with 3 other groups: the dentals (ts, tsʰ, s), the velars (k, kʰ, x), and the retroflexes (ʈʂ, ʈʂʰ, ʂ, ɻ). The palatals can only precede high front vowels, [i] and [y], or their glide counterparts [j] and [ɥ]. Whereas the other 3 groups cannot. The existence of complementary distribution without any morphophonological alternation has made the phonemic status of Mandarin palatals a puzzle. Some believe they are allophones of either the velars or the dentals (or both), while others argue they are their own independent phonemes. I have designed a language game in which a native speaker is asked to switch around the two onsets of a disyllabic compound, so that some alternation might take place. In particular, I present speakers with marked inputs like *[ky] or *[ɕu], to see whether they preserve the place of articulation of the onset or the backness of the high vowel. Another puzzle investigated in this study is the status of the prenucleus glide. There is an ongoing debate on whether they are structurally closer to the onset or the rhyme. My language game can also shed some light on the matter.