Event Title
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Publication Date
2020
Start Date
14-11-2020 1:15 PM
End Date
14-11-2020 1:20 PM
Description
Even though gemination is one of the most attested phonological processes crosslinguistically, the amount of literature on it is very modest (Mubarak & Jebur, 2018). This also stands true for Garo (understudied Sino-Tibetan language of India and Bangladesh), where Burling (2003), the sole descriptive work of the language does not describe the process. This stands in the way of answering whether assimilated geminates (McCarthy, 1986) are prevalent in languages, and if so, what universal principles motivate it. This paper examines the gemination process in Garo and explains it in the autosegmental phonology framework (Kenstowicz, 1994; Goldsmith, 1976). This paper finds that gemination is a predictable process triggered by morpheme concatenation. Whenever a morpheme with a coda combines with another that lacks an onset, the coda of the preceding morpheme spreads to the onset of the following morpheme e.g. [t͡ sʰat] “thick” + [-a] “neutral tense” = [t͡ sʰat.ta] “be thick”. These types of geminates are preserved by the geminate integrity constraint (Crystal, 2008) and are immune to the aspiration rule of Garo. There are of course exceptions to this process. These exceptions are however easily explained by onset constraints that apply in the language without exceptions or in other cases by an appeal to an identity rule (Kenstowicz, 1994; Kiparsky, 1982). Considering the process within the broader typology, it appears that the gemination is motivated by the need for onsets in syllables, and that languages can achieve this unmarked structure (Rice, 2007) through phonological processes even though underlying marked syllable configurations exists.
See full abstract linked below.
Video transcript
Sangma-mACOL2020-abstract.pdf (36 kB)
Full abstract
The Phonology of Gemination in Garo
Even though gemination is one of the most attested phonological processes crosslinguistically, the amount of literature on it is very modest (Mubarak & Jebur, 2018). This also stands true for Garo (understudied Sino-Tibetan language of India and Bangladesh), where Burling (2003), the sole descriptive work of the language does not describe the process. This stands in the way of answering whether assimilated geminates (McCarthy, 1986) are prevalent in languages, and if so, what universal principles motivate it. This paper examines the gemination process in Garo and explains it in the autosegmental phonology framework (Kenstowicz, 1994; Goldsmith, 1976). This paper finds that gemination is a predictable process triggered by morpheme concatenation. Whenever a morpheme with a coda combines with another that lacks an onset, the coda of the preceding morpheme spreads to the onset of the following morpheme e.g. [t͡ sʰat] “thick” + [-a] “neutral tense” = [t͡ sʰat.ta] “be thick”. These types of geminates are preserved by the geminate integrity constraint (Crystal, 2008) and are immune to the aspiration rule of Garo. There are of course exceptions to this process. These exceptions are however easily explained by onset constraints that apply in the language without exceptions or in other cases by an appeal to an identity rule (Kenstowicz, 1994; Kiparsky, 1982). Considering the process within the broader typology, it appears that the gemination is motivated by the need for onsets in syllables, and that languages can achieve this unmarked structure (Rice, 2007) through phonological processes even though underlying marked syllable configurations exists.
See full abstract linked below.