This week, we’re delighted to welcome Juliet Stanton in the deparment for an extended colloquium visit! As part of her visit, Juliet will teach a minicourse over two days.
Speaker: Juliet Stanton (New York University)
Minicourse title: Hiatus resolution in the Cangin languages
Days and times: Tuesday (2/7), 12.30-2pm; Wednesday (2/8), 1-2.30pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: The Cangin languages are a small subgroup of Atlantic languages spoken in Senegal. All ban hiatus (sequences of two consecutive vowels) but resolve it in different ways. In two languages, the resolution strategies are not surprising: Palor and Ndut resolve hiatus through a combination of vowel deletion and glide epenthesis. In the others, however, the resolution strategies are more surprising: Noon and Laalaa (and probably Saafi) resolve hiatus through epenthesis of the coronal nasal [n]. Most of the lectures will be devoted to summarizing the patterns, sketching analyses, and determining the degree to which the [n] epenthesis pattern is predicted (or not) by extant theories of consonant epenthesis. This is work in progress, so your thoughts will be welcome!