Linguistics Terms Flashcards
Rhotacism (rotacismo)
a. Loss of phonemic contrast between syllable-final /r/ and /l/. In Latin America this phenomenon is found basically in the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela); e.g.: mejor [me.’hol] ‘better’
i. Rhotacism, lateralization
This process occurred in the change from Latin sequences [min] to Spanish [mbr]. César Gutiérrez proposes that it hapened before syncope.
FEMINAM > hembra
LEGUMINEN > legumbre
HOMINEN > homne > homre > hombre
Usualmente, según historiadores, siguió el proceso de síncopa, disimilación de nasales, y epéntesis.
Por el proceso de disimilación, se añadió con la nasal labial en [r] originando en [mr].
Competencia comunicativa
Hymes
Sociolingüístico
Actuación: o Usar bien las formas en el contexto adecuado
conlleva saber no solamente el código lingüístico, sino también cómo usarlo de una manera apropiada a la situación dada—abarca todo lo que un hablante tiene que saber para poder comunicarse bien de una manera apropiada dentro de una comunidad de habla
La competencia gramatical
se refiere al nivel de dominio que el estudiante tiene sobre la gramática de la L2. Incluye el conocimiento del vocabulario, la pronunciación, la ortografía, la formación de palabras y la estructura de frases.
Assimilation
a phoneme is modified in one or more features in such a way that the phoneme becomes more similar to a neighboring phoneme Anticipatory assimilation: [k] led to [tS] –> [ts] CINQUE, CESTA, because of the front vowel after it. In areas where it was not followed by a front vowel, it remains unchanged: CAPANNA –> cabaña
Progressive or “lag” assimilation
The modification of phonemes under the influence of a preceding phoneme. With the sequence /mb/, the second phoneme is modified to /mm/, and later simplified to a single /m/. PALUMBA –> paloma
Mutual assimilation
Two adjacent phonemes each change to merge in a pronunciation that is intermediate. /AU/ –> /o/ in CAUSA –> cosa; AUDIRE –> oír
Dissimilation
Relates to the articulatory difficulty of coordinating the articulatory movement to repeat a phoneme, which often leads to the phoneme’s replacement or elimination. AUGUSTU –> agosto (elimination of the first occurrence)
ROBORE –> roble (replacement)
ARATRU–> arado (elimination of second occurrence)
Epenthesis
The insertion of a phoneme to facilitate the articulation between two different phonemes, (typically /b/ or /d/)
HUMERU –> hombro
INGENRARE–> engendrar
NOTE: Syncope eliminates the intertonic vowel first
Metathesis
The re-ordering of phonemes to facilitate articulation within a word GENERU-->yerno PRAESEPE--> pesebre PARABLA (O.S.)--> palabra PERIGLO (O.S.)-->peligro
Phonemic split
Infrequent in the history of Spanish; likely only occurred with the phonemes /h/ and /f/. The phoneme /h/, spelt f in Latin, had an allophone [ʍ]–a voiceless labiovelar fricative– in front of the glide [w], producing fuente, fuerte [ʍwente]. Thus, there was the distinction between fablar [hablar] and fuente [ʍwente]–and there may have even been a third allophone, (which I will return to later. ) The introduction of borrowings from other languages and Latin, introduced the idea of using [f + full-vowel]. As a result, the Latin FORMA was incorporated into Spanish as [‘forma], or Occitan faisan was included as [‘faisan]. The distinction arose between [h] and [f]: horma and forma, for example. The ultimate loss of /h/ in some varieties of Spanish does not affect the split mentioned here. (p. 37, Penny)
Phonemic merger
This is the neutralization of originally distinct phonemes so that they no longer form a contrast in the same position. This happened most clearly with the phoneme O. Sp. /b/, spelt b and /β/, spelt v. Spelling evidence suggests the two were neutralized when they occurred in consonant clusters; the spellings alba and alva alternate, as do enbiar and enviar. Word-initial position was neutralized as well, and n the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, intervocalic position was also neutralized. The merger is complete by the time Golden Age literature rolls around, as can be seen in the literature. The merger is therefore complete.
Analogy
The process by which related words become more alike in form, ‘related’ referring to either meaning or function.. Examples include suegra and nuera (from SOCRUS and NURUS), and diestro and siniestro (from DEXTRU and SINISTRU).
Learned/cultismos
Borrowed from Latin via writing: fábula (from FABULA) or regular (from REGULARIS). These words do not undergo the same changes as popular words, and retain a lot of features of the original Latin, only suffering moderate modifications to allow them to fit the patterns of Spanish.
Popular/vulgarismos
Words that have a continuous oral history, undergoing all the processes of modification to be expected in Spanish. Examples include FABULARI > hablar
REGULA > reja (ploughshare)
Semi-learned/semicultismos
Words that, although they have been transmitted orally from Latin, have been remodelled during the medieval period from influence from Latin as read aloud in the church or in law courts. Examples include cruz (which should have an “o” if it followed the regular pattern of Spanish vowel change), infierno (in which, although dipthongizatio occurs, there shouldn’t be -NF-; typically, that mergers via assimilation into ff); or octubre (which could have been ochubre, but, based on the influence of read aloud OCTOBER, stayed the same with /kt/.)
Doublets (dobletes)
Cases of double transmission of words–they often show a semantic difference in meaning, with the vulgarism showing a new meaning while the learned one retains the Latin meaning. Ex. is delgado vs. delicado (from DELICATUS) or artejo vs. artículo (from ARTICULUM)
Pitch
Musical frequency of a sound; tends to be higher in the accented syllable
Energy (stress)
The loudness of a phoneme, usually produced with more muscular force (stress) than the surrounding phonemes
Duration
Length of a phoneme
Pitch-accent
The relative heights of musical notes indicate where the accent lies (used to exist in Latin), since energy was uniform and duration couldn’t have been a factor, since length was one of the features of the vowel system.
Stress-accent
Characteristic of Romance languages (including Spanish) and even English. The accented syllable is mainly signaled by energy, a.k.a. stress. For this reason, very few syllables that use a hiatus have survived in Spanish–the few exceptions include dîa, mía, and vía. Since hiatus require the equal energetic strength which was not easy to produce in O.Sp., many originally hiatus words changed into single-vowel words or ended up as a glide.
Metaphony
Vowel-raising in anticipation of following, higher vowel phonemes (typically a high vowel or a glide.) The highest tonic vowels /i/ and /u/ were exempt from this process.The glide sometimes happens early on in the process, meaning the vowel palatizes with a consonant and loses its identity early on (this happened with the [j] + /k/ or /t// as in LENTEU > lienzo or FORTIA > fuerza. Spoken Latin /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ lost their identities and eventually went through the regular process of dipthongization typically experienced by these vowels.
Typically processes of metaphony (when a higher vowel follows the stressed vowel):
/e/ is raised to /i/ VENDĒMIA > vendimia
/ɛ/ is raised to /e/ MATERIA > madera
/a/ is raised to /e/ AREA > era
/ɔ/ is raised to /o/ FOLIA > hoja
/o/ is raised to /u/ *CUNEA > cuña
Glides + metaphony, according to the vowel
/a/
1. glide within the same syllable YES metaphony
Examples: CANTAVI > [kan.tai] > canté;
AREA > [aira] > era
BASIU > [baiso] > beso
SAPIAM > [saipam] > sepa
LACTE > [laite] > leche
MATAXA > [mataisia] > madexa > madeja
2. onset of next syllable contains the glide NO metaphony
Examples: LABIU > labio
FLACCIDU > [flattsio] > llacio > lacio (limp, lank)
3. after a [dj] or [gj] NO metaphony
4. after a [lj]
ALIU > ajo
5. concerned vowel is followed by [ɲ] NO metaphony
ARANEA > araña
/ɛ/
1. glide within the same syllable YES metaphony
Examples:
MATERIA > [matɛira] >madera
CERESIA > [ke’ɾɛisa] > O.Sp. ceresa, M.Sp. cereza (cherry)
DIRECTU > [de’ɾɛito] > derecho (law, straight)
LECTU > [‘lɛito] > lecho (bed)
INTÉGRU > [en’tɛiɾo] > entero (whole)
2. The following subject contains a glide from an earlier hiatus (typically a /e/ or an /i/)–YES metaphony
Examples:
SUPERBIA > soberbia (pride, vainglory), NERVIU > nervio (nerve; strength); PRAEMIU > premio (award, prize);
3. followed by a [dj] –YES metaphony
SEDEAT > {sej̆a] > sea
4. The vowel is followed by a [ʎ] (from earlier [lj]) or [kj] or [gj]–YES metaphony
SPECULU > [es’pɛʎo] > espejo (mirror) (but VECLU > (CL VETULU) > [βɛʎo] > viejo)
5. The vowel is followed by a ɲ–YES metaphony
INGENIU > O. Sp. engeño (‘siege engine’–although this specific example should be discarded, as it is semi-learned)
/ɔ/
1. The vowel is followed immediately by [i̯], by definition in the same syllable–YES metaphony.
Examples: OCTO > [ɔi̯to] > ocho (eight); NOCTE > [nɔi̯te] > noche (night); COXU > [kɔi̯so] > OSp. coxo > M.Sp. cojo (lame)
2. The onset of the following syllable contains a glide [j] followed by another phoneme–YES metaphony
Examples: OSTREA > ɔstria> later ostra
NOVIU > novio
3. After a [dj]/ j–YES metaphony
PODIU > [pɔ palatalization of dj to dz to y o] poyo ‘stone bench’
HODIE > [hɔ, palatization of dj], syncope of ‘e’] hoy ‘today’
4. The vowel is followed by a [ʎ] (from earlier [lj]) or [kj] or [gj]–YES metaphony
Examples:
FOLIA > [‘fɔʎa] > hoja; COLLIGIS > [kɔllees} > [kɔlljes] > [kɔʎes] > coges ‘you grasp’; OCULU > [ɔʎo] > ojo ‘eye’
5. Vowel is followed by a ɲ–NO metaphony
Examples:
SOMNIU > sueño ‘dream’ (unless this form is simply an semantically extended form of SOMNU, “sueño”, I sleep)
/e/
1. The vowel is followed immediately by [i̯], by definition in the same syllable–NO metaphony.
ESTRICTU > [estreito] > estrecho, CERVESIA > [kerβeisa. > cervesa (O. Sp.), cerveza (M. Sp.); PIGNORA > [pɾeina] > prenda
2. The onset of the following syllable contains a glide [j] followed by another phoneme–YES metaphony
VENDEMIA > vendimia ‘wine harvest’
LIMPIDU > lempeo > limpio ‘clean’
SEPIA > jibia ‘cuttlefish’
VITREU > βedrjo > vidrio
3. After a [dj]/ j–NO metaphony
CORRIGIA > [ko’ɾej̆a] > correa
VIDEAT > [βej̆a] >vea
4. The vowel is followed by a [ʎ] (from earlier [lj]) or [kj] or [gj]–NO metaphony
CILIA > ceja; CONSILIU > consejo; APICULA > [aβeʎa]> abeja; TEGULA > [teʎa] > teja
5. Vowel is followed by a ɲ–NO metaphony
LIGNA > leña
/o/
1. The vowel is followed immediately by [i̯], by definition in the same syllable–YES metaphony
LUCTA > [loi̯ta] > lucha
MULTU >[mou̯to} > [moi̯to] > mucho
AUSCULTAT > [as’kou̯tat] > [as’koi̯tat} > escucha
VULTURE > [βou̯ture} > [βoi̯ture} > [βoi̯tre} > buitre
IMPULSAT > empou̯sat > empoi̯sat > empuja
2. The onset of the following syllable contains a glide [j] followed by another phoneme–YES metaphony
Examples:
RUBEU > [ruβjo] > rubio
PLUVIA > [pʎoβja] > lluvia
5. Vowel is followed by a ɲ–YES metaphony
CUNEU > cuño; PUGNU > puño
Metaphony by final Ī
Infrequent, but did exist in Spanish:
/ɛ/ to /e/ VENI > ven! (come)
/e/ to /i/ VĒNĪ > vine ( I came); FĒCĪ > hice (I did); MIHĪ > mi, TIBĪ> ti
Dipthongs
pg. 51-53 of Penny
Dative
“The recipient of an action or object” Dative cases in Spanish are me, te, le, se, nos, os, les
The dative case is a grammatical case used to define the receptor of an action, or the argument affected by the argument. In Spanish, indirect objects are marked with dative case. Le envió una carta a mi madre.
Focus
Focus is a feature of language that can be realized through various processes. It draws attention to an argument in an utterance to either contrast (as in correcting previously mentioned information) or to highlight new information; these two forms of focus are respectively called Contrastive Focus and Informational Focus. From a phonological perspective, the suprasegmental stress can show the focused information. Syntactically, there are several strategies, such as raising that information to the beginning of a sentence. Compare “Juan compró ese libro” and “Ese libro, Juan lo compró”. In the second sentence, the phrase “ese libro” is the focused element, stressing the fact that the very book they are talking about is important. You can also state “Juan compró ESE libro”, for the in situ, phonological representation of focus.
Inacusatividad
Unaccusativity refers to a type of verb in which the subject of the intransitive verb in one sentence can be the direct object of the same verb in a transitive structure. El avión aterrizó; El piloto aterrizó el avión. This contrasts with unergative (inergativo) structures, in which the subject is the same for both the transitive and intransitive: Juan trabajó, Juan trabajó su tesis. Unaccusative verbs generally denote changes of state (romper-se, adelgazar) or position (entrar, caer), existence (existir, faltar, sobrar) or appearance (morir, nacer, aparecer, desaparecer).
F0 (fundamental frequency)
A fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency in a resonating system. We know that what we hear as a single sound or pitch when someone is speaking (for example, making the sound [i]) is really a fundamental frequency (determined by how many times the vocal folds vibrate in one second, and measured in cycles per second [cps], or hertz [Hz]) (named after the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz), plus a whole series of harmonics or overtones (these two terms do not mean exactly the same thing, but we will use them interchangeably for now; in fact the fundamental frequency is the first harmonic, the next octave up is the second harmonic or first overtone).The harmonics are multiples of the fundamental frequency.
Acusative
i. Accusative - me 1S, te 2S, lo 3SM, la 3SF, se 3S/P refl., nos 1P, os 2P, los 3PM, las 3PF
Acusative
i. Accusative - me 1S, te 2S, lo 3SM, la 3SF, se 3S/P refl., nos 1P, os 2P, los 3PM, las 3PF
Adstrate (adstrato)
An adstrate is a language contact situation in which two languages exist alongside one another, without one necessarily having power or prestige over the other. A modern case of this is Basque and Spanish, or Basque and French, in Euskal Herria (greater Basque Country, including parts of Navarra and 3 French departments). Another case historically would be Iberian Romances and Andalusian Arabic. In contrast to the terms substrate and superstrate, there is no reference to an invading/conquering language group.
Analogy (analogía)
Analogy is a process by which language changes through association with one form with another form. The first person plural pronoun nosotros was formed by analogy with vosotros (which itself is a compound of older vos + otros). A modern example is the addition of -s to the second person preterit verb form, dijistes for dijiste, due to analogy with the other tú verb forms, all of which contain -s.
Apherisis (aférisis)
Apheresis is a historical process by which the first sound(s) of a word are lost. This is not nor has ever been a very productive process in Spanish, however, there are cases, as in loanwords from Greek that start with the letter psi: (p)sicología, (p)sicólogo, (p)seudonimo. It can also be seen in certain lexical items, as in Antonio > Toño. (I have to look it up, but I think some of the object pronouns underwent apheresis from the Latin demonstratives: e.g. illu > lo)
Apocope (apócope)
Apocope is the loss of a word-final sound. In the history of Spanish, several phones have been susceptible to this process, notably -m, -s and -e. Sᴘᴇᴄᴜʟᴜᴍ > speculu (mod. espejo); ᴜʀꜱᴜꜱ > ursu (mod. oso); all Spanish infinitives with Latin roots underwent apocope of -e.
Assimilation (asimilación)
Assimilation is a process by which a sound adopts some or all traits of another phone it is in contact with. This has occurred many times in the history of Spanish, particularly in the case of nasals, sibilants and often triggered by palatals. Assimilation can be anticipatory (progressive) or regressive. The former is the assimilation of the first segment into the segment, as in ꜱᴇᴘᴛᴇ > sette. Regressive assimilation is the transfer of features to a later segment, as in the English plural marker -s, which adopts the voicing of the segment it follows: cat > ca[ts]; dog > do[gz]. Assimilation can be complete, as in the Romance example where the /p/ adopts all features of the /t/, or partial, as in the English example, where the only assimilated feature is voicing. (Kendall also cited the example of /mb/ > [mm] in Spanish, as in ᴘᴀʟᴜᴍʙᴀ > palomma (> paloma))
- Chain shift (push, pull) (Cadena de cambio (empuje, arrastre))
a. Chain shifts are series of changes that are caused by each other. An example of the chain shift is the series of lenition in Vulgar Latin/Spanish. In a Push Shift, one phone starts to converge onto another, but to maintain the distinction, the grammar continues to shift other sounds until the process ends; using the historical example, the /p/ lenites into a realization converging on /b/, which then lenites into a voiced bilabial fricative. In a Pull Shift, the opposite is true. The same example would have the bilabial fricative moving, leaving an open space for the /b/ to move, which coincidentally also leaves its old space open for /p/ to devoice.
- Comparative method (Método comparativo)
a. The Comparative Method is a manner of observing language change through comparing the living, real-life variety of (supposedly) related languages today. Through the Comparative Method, it is possible to reconstruct hypothetical proto-languages or postulate how an ancestral form of language was spoken. While we do not have living speakers of Latin, it is possible to create a reconstruction of its phonological system by comparing the systems of its daughter languages, the Romance languages.
- Deaffrication (Desafricación)
a. Deaffrication is a process by which affricates simplify by losing the stop segment, leaving only the fricative portion. Old Spanish /dz/ and /ts/ simplified to /z/ and /s/ respectively.
- Degemination
a. The geminate is a double consonant which sound is significantly longer than is normally the case; thus the /nn/ or /n:/ of Spanish innegable is geminate (in this case because of the prefix in-). In Latin this double consonant structure was common with many consonants and is related to the voicing of intervocalic stops. Once the intervocalic -p- became -b- the intervocalic -pp- (which was longer) was free to simplify/reduce/degeminate to a single -p-, thus economy of articulation was achieved. This was the case for /p:/, /t:/, /c:/ which all reduce or degeminate to a single shorter sound /p, t, c/. However this tendency had to apply to all geminates but phonemic distinction needed to remain causing intervocalic -s- to be voiced to [z] (this of course in MSp will again devoice to [s]) thus allowing /s:/ > /s/. In the case of voiced geminates /m:/, /d:/, /g:/ simply reduced to /m/ and /d/. /rr/ was unaffected. /ll/ and /nn/ palatalized /ʎ / and /ɲ / and thus maintain their distinction from the shorter /l/ and /n/. (Lloyd pp.242-244)
- Diphthongization
a. The Latin vowels E, AE = /ɛ/ and O = /ɔ/ in tonic position diphthongize in Spanish. /ɛ/ > /ie/ and /ɔ/ > /ue/. Example PERDO (tonic E) > pierdo ; SERVU > siervo ; PORTA (tonic O) > puerta. But there are exceptions, often the presence of a yod can cause the eligible tonic vowel to close rather than open as is the case of NERVIU. The E should become -ie- *niervio but the yod -I- causes the -E- = /ɛ/ to close > /e/. (Fernando’s handouts)
- Dissimilation
a. Any phonetic or phonological process in which a particular sound becomes more different from some other nearby sound (Penny p. 323). This is seen in unexpected vowel changes those that don’t follow the norm based on their traits and positions. Example: ROTUNDO we expect *rodondo because the first -O- is unstressed causing it to remain /o/ the -U- is short and tonic causing it to change to /o/ but in order to make these two/three -o-’s less similar, the first being unstressed undergoes dissimilation to /e/ with the MSp result of redondo (round). This is a case of replacement of a back vowel with a front vowel. Another option is elimination Example: AUGUSTU > agosto. The first -U- is eliminated. (Penny p. 32) (interestingly AU is a Latin diphthong and would have changed to O- however “when /au/ precedes a velar consonant followed by a /u/ it was simplified to /a/ in Late Latin” (Lloyd p.189). An example of consonant replacement is *RŌBORE > roble (r > l) the -O- being lost by the process of syncope (deletion of the post-tonic penultimate syllable vowel except for -a-). An example of consonant elimination is ARATRU > arado (elimination of the -R- followed by sonorization of the intervocalic -T- > d etc.) (Penny p. 32)
Epenthesis
a. “The insertion of a segment into the *middle of a word” (Penny, p.323, it doesn’t have to be the “middle” it could be at the beginning).
b. The addition of a new sound to a word.
i. Intrusive consonants: Example: (H)UMERU > hombro. Syncope of the -E- leaves -MR- the bilabial nasal nature of the /m/ followed by /r/ gives the acoustic impression of a bilabial occlusive /b/ hence its insertion.
ii. Prothetic vowels: Example: SCHOLA > escuela. Word initial S- followed by a consonant developed a supporting vowel. In Spanish the vowel e- is used. (Lloyd p.8)
- Extreme apocope
a. the loss or omission of one or more sounds from the end of a word. (Penny p. 322) Example of normal apocope: ARBORE > árbol (apocope of the -e)
b. In MSp, apocope occurs in certain contexts: after “apical consonants” (Lloyd p.320). After /r,l,d,/
c. Finally extreme apocope was common in the 13th century perhaps due to the influence of French where apocope was extended to additional contexts, which is what is referred to as “extreme”. Very few of this extreme cases were made permanent all of which followed the -ç- /ts/ but the most common are FALCE > foçe > foz > hoz and PISCE > peçe > pez. French and Catalan embrace extreme apocope of -e where it occurs in a much larger set of contexts, including after /tʃ/: nocte > noche > noch; after -v-: nove > nove > neuf and so on. (Penny p. 58-9)
- Fortition
a. The consonantal change from a ‘weak’ sound to a ‘strong’ one, the opposite of the more common lenition. Fortition may occur in prominent positions, such as at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable. (wikipedia)
b. A sound is strengthened. Strengthening turns a less restricted sound (like an approximant or a fricative) into a more restricted one (like an affricate or a stop).
c. Example: /ʝ / in the subject pronoun “yo” in some dialects is strengthened to an affricate /d͡ʒ/. In English the same thing happens to /j/ in “you” is fortified to an affricate /d͡ʒ/ in the colloquial pronunciation “did ya?” [‘dɪʔdʒə].
d. (seeing as it isn’t in the index of either Penny or Lloyd I have my doubts it will be on the test. I am not sure if /ʎ/ > /ʒ/ counts as fortition in OCULUS > “oʎo” > “oʒo”.
e. Examples: ‘yerba’ [‘jeɾ.βa] > [‘ʝeɾ.βa] is fricativization through fortition.
- Fricativization
a. The process in which a unit of sound becomes a fricative, which is a consonantal sound produced from lightly obstructing the passage of air from the mouth. Fricativization can occur from both lenition and fortition. Examples: ‘yerba’ [‘jeɾ.βa] > [‘ʝeɾ.βa] is fricativization through fortition; ‘dado’ [‘da.do] > [‘da.ðo] is fricativization through lenition.
- Grammaticalization
a. The language change in which words like nouns or verbs become grammatical markers like affixes, auxiliaries, etc. Example: HABĒRE ‘to have’ became the auxiliary verb ‘haber’ in Spanish used for the formation of perfective tenses, such as the present perfect ‘he comido’, future perfect ‘habrá comido’, etc.
Learned word (cultismo)
a. A word whose morphology and phonology follows its etymological latin or greek origin without obeying the evolutionary changes of the language, which in the case of Spanish happened through Vulgar Latin. According to Lloyd (p. 151), learned words became increasingly frequent beginning in the 14th century with the great work of Alfonso X. Example: fragua ‘forge’ and fábrica ‘factory’ both come from the Latin FĀBRICA. The former went through the evolutionary changes while the latter was taken directly from Latin.
- Lenition (2)
a. The weakening of a consonant (Lloyd p. 145). Lenition can happen through simplification (of geminates), sonorization (of the voiceless), fricativization (of voiced plosives), and loss (of voiced fricatives) (Penny p.76). Example: ‘LATU’ > ‘lado’ [‘la.tu] > [‘la.do] > [‘la.ðo]. After the simplification (of geminates) no further lenition processes occur. Example: CUPPA > copa > *coba > *coβa > *coa. (Penny p. 77)
b. A phonological process of weakening typically one which affects intervocalic consonants in which a speech sound is changed to another sound which involved a less complete blockage of the airstream. (Penny p. 325)
- Lexical diffusion
a. When a sound change spreads from one morpheme to another rather than being used at once in all morphemes having the appropriate phonetic conditions in which it might appear. The effects of this type of extension are that at any one time and place some words may be pronounced with the older pronunciation, some with the new, and others with both. (Lloyd p. 21-22)
i. Chen (1972): Instead of changing a speaker’s entire vocabulary overnight, as it were, sound change begins as an innovative pronunciation of a single word or a group of words, and then progressively spreads to other portions of the lexicon… Exceptions… can be regarded as residual forms of a sound change which has not yet completed its course, or has come to a premature end, or has been thwarted by a competing sound change overlapping with it along the time dimension.
ii. Examples: In some dialects where there is intervocalic /d/ deletion, [‘a.ðo] > [a.o], with past participles, the phenomenon might still not occur in other contexts such as [pwe] for ‘puede’ instead of [‘pwe.ðe].
Metaphony (metafonía)
a. (Lloyd p. 308) The influence of a vowel on another vowel. In the case of Spanish, the most feature is the effect of final high vowels on a preceding vowel. In early Castilian, the evidence for metaphony is found mostly in verb forms as it was in the perfect that the high front vowel appeared in form 1. The effect of /-i/ was to raise the preceding stem vowel in anticipation of the final high vowel. Thus, the two verbs which conserve the last traces of the vowel gradation are affected by metaphony: fazer ‘to make, do’ < FACERE and venir ‘to come’ < VENĪRE:
i. FĒCĪ > fize; VĒNĪ > vine
- Metathesis (metátesis) (4)
a. (Lloyd p. 7-8) This is the change of the position of a sound in a word. For example: Lat. MĪRĀCULU ‘miracle’ > OSp. miraglo, metathesized the liquids producing the MSp. milagro. This specific example is reciprocal metathesis. If only one sound changes place, it is called simple metathesis, e.g., Late Lat. APPECTORĀRE ‘to hug’ > Sp. apretar ‘to squeeze’.
- Palatalization
a. Lloyd p.7) Occurs when a consonant adopts the palatal quality of a neighboring sound and often absorbs it completely. For example, Latin consonants followed by a palatal semivowel (or yod) became pronounced as palatals in Late Latin, e.g., Lat. VĪNEA ‘vineyard’ > Sp. viña.
- Proclisis
a. Pronunciation as a proclitic. Combination in pronunciation of unaccented word or particle with a following accented word.
Semi-learned form (semicultismo)
a. A much debated term, which Penny uses as an historical label applied to words which have been transmitted orally from Latin but which have undergone modification of their forms under the influence of the manner in which Latin was read aloud in the Middle Ages (Penny, 327)
- Sonorization
a. Sonority refers to the degree of openness. Segments can be ordered along a scale of sonority where low vowels have the highest degree of sonority (they are the most open segments) and plosives the lowest. The phonemes of a language can be arranged along a scale of sonority from most open or vowel-like to most closed or consonant-like. In Spanish on a scale from most-open to most-closed the following categorization of phonemes are organized:
i. Low vowel a
ii. Mid vowels e o
iii. High vowels i u
iv. Liquids l (ʎ) ɾ r
v. Nasals m n ɲ
vi. Obstruents f (θ) s x ʝ t⟆ b d g p t k (Hualde, 71-72)
- Substrate
a. Bynon (1977: 252) defines a linguistic substrate as ‘the survival of features typical of a language formerly spoken in an area in that language which has replaced it.’ Such relics are often particularly numerous in placenames; for instance, we know virtually nothing of the Pictish language (or languages) spoken in Scotland before Gaelic, but one placename element pit ‘a field’ survives in Pitlochry, Pittenweem, and others, giving us some clues as to the area which the Picts originally inhabited. However, substrate theory becomes increasingly speculative and dubious when used to account for the transfer of larger-scale linguistic features.
b. Linguistic features attributed to substrate influence:
i. F- > /h/
ii. Latin /u/ fronted to /y/ in French, Provencal, and some northern and western German dialects (previously inhabited by Celtic speakers) (McMahon 220-21)
- Supletismo (morfología) (Suppletion)
a. (supleción) Use of two or more distinct roots in a morphological paradigm. For instance, the verb ir ‘to go’ shows suppletion (voy, fui, iré) (Hualde, 301)
- Syllable-initial fortition
a. Consonantal change from ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ in syllable-initial position. Example: /ʝ/ in the subject pronoun “yo” in some dialects is strengthened to an affricate /d͡ʒ/.
Syncope (síncopa)
a. The loss of a segment, especially a vowel, from the middle of a word (Penny, 327). Typically postonic Ex. OCULU > okulu > oklu > etc but also pretonic Ex. BONITĀTE > bondad.
- Yod
a. A palatal glide, either opening [j] or closing [i] (Penny, 328)
b. Term used mostly in historical linguistics to refer to a palatal glide (Hualde, 302)
- Allophone (3) (alófono)
a. One of two or more realizations of a phoneme. Example: [b] and [ß] are allophones of the phoneme /ß/.
i. Faithfulness, underlying vs surface, give concrete examples, distribution, phonotactic environs, …
- Archiphoneme (2) (archifonema)
a. Due to neutralization of several phonemes, the archiphoneme represents several indistinguishable phonemes. It has certain specified features but not all. Example: /N/ is the archiphoneme of all possible surface representations of nasals in a given context. The archiphoneme /N/ specifies the manner of articulation [+nasal] but does not specify point of articulation.
- Assimilation (2) (asimilación)
a. A kind of sound change in which a sound segment becomes more similar to another sound segment. Ex. “enfermo” > /en.fer.mo/ > [eɱ.’fer.mo]
Assimilation in voicing (Voicing assimilation) (2) (asimilación de voz)
a. The change of the voice feature in a sound segment influenced by the voice feature of another sound segment so that both segments express the same voice feature. Ex. “mismo” > /mis.mo/ > [‘miz.mo]
- Ceceo (3)
a. A phenomenon in the Spanish language in which there is a loss of distinction between the letters “c +i ; e” “z” and “s” by pronouncing them all as [θ].
Geographic distribution
- Complementary distribution (2) (distribución complementaria)
a. The distribution of sounds so that one sound never appears in the same phonetic environment as another. Example: [ß] never appears in the same phonetic environment as [b], so they are in complementary distribution.
- Devoicing (Ensordecimiento)
a. The process of a voiced segment (in Spanish, generally a consonant) becoming devoiced, the opposite process of sonorization/voicing. This is to say that the vocal cords do not vibrate during the production of these phones. Although it is not a very productive process in Spanish, there are some varieties that have a tendency to devoice some word-final consonants, as /ð/ > [θ], edad [eðað] > [eðaθ]. Historically, Spanish’s voiced sibilants underwent devoicing (ex. /kaza/ > /kasa/) and currently Rioplatense Spanish is undergoing a similar process with ZH > SH.
- Diphthong (Diptongo)
a. Diphthongs are tautosyllabic sequences of two vowels, or rather, a vowel and a semivowel. Diphthongs are split into two categories–rising (creciente) and falling (decreciente). In rising diphthongs, the weaker semivowel /i̯/ or /u̯/ leads into the stronger, nucleic vowel /a, e, i, o, u/ (ex. /i̯e/ in siete), while in falling diphthongs, the opposite is true (ex. /ei̯/ in peinar). Examples such as huevo and hierba are sometimes not considered to be diphthongs, as the first segment is often classified as a semiconsonant, rather than a semivowel: [weßo, jerßa].
- F0 (fundamental frequency, frecuencia fundamental)
a. The fundamental frequency is the lowest acoustic frequency of a given waveform. The frequency is the number of vibrations of the soundwave within a given timeframe, which is measured in hertz (Hz). The soundwaves that create vocalizations are comprised of this fundamental frequency along with other harmonic frequencies (frecuencias armónicas) in a compound wave (onda compuesta)
- Free variation (2) (Variación libre)
a. Free variation is when a speaker or group of speakers can vary between different grammars randomly or pragmatically, generally unconsciously deciding on one form over the other. In terms of phonology, a speaker can pronounce a word with a certain series of segments or a separate, distinct series. An example from Spanish would be syllable-final /N/, which for some speakers can alternate between [n] and [ŋ].
- Glides (2) (Semivocal/semiconsonante, deslizada)
a. Glides, also called semivowels (and by some definitions, occasionally semiconsonants), are phones that do not act solely as the nucleus of a syllable, but rather work in conjunction with the nuclear vowel as part of the nucleus. Some definitions use semiconsonants for pre-vocal glides and semivowel is used for post-vocalic. /i̯/ or /u̯/ vs /j/ or /w/
- Hiatus (Hiato)
a. A hiatus is a context in which two vowels in contact with each other but the point of contact is at a syllable break, in contrast to a diphthong where they are tautosyllabic. In rapid, colloquial speech, hiatuses can become diphthongs, including in cases where one vowel is not a high vowel /i, u/ (ex. poema /po.ema/ > [pwema]). Examples of hiatuses include the imperfective past verbal inflection -ía /i.a/ and two sequential vowels in which neither is a high vowel, as in the -oo- of zoológico [θo.o’lo.xi.ko].
- Manner of articulation (3) (Modo de articulación)
a. Feature which refers to the type of obstruction that is created in the articulation of a consonant (Hualde, 41). The following classes of consonants are distinguished according to Manner of articulation:
i. Plosives (oral stops) / oclusivas [p, t, k, b, d, g]
ii. Fricatives / fricativas [f θ s z ʒ ʝ x h ʃ]
iii. Approximants / aproximantes [β δ ɣ]
iv. Affricates / africadas [tʃ]
v. Nasals / nasales [m n ɲ ŋ]
vi. Laterals / laterales [l ʎ]
vii. Rhotics / vibrantes [ɾ r̄]
- Minimal pair (2) (par mínimo)
a. Pairs of words that differ only in that one member of the pair has one phoneme and the other has the other (Hualde, 6) i.e. cara/para
b. Two words that differ in a single consonantal or vocalic segment and have different meaning. Minimal pairs are useful for establishing the phonemic inventory of a language. For instance the minimal pair [‘ma.ta] ‘bush’ and [´na.ta] ‘cream’ shows that /m/ and /n/ are contrasting consonants in Spanish. Minimal pairs can also be used to show the contrasting value of suprasegmental features such as stress and tone (in tone languages)
- Nasal assimilation (2) (asimilación nasal)
a. Assimilation is a process by which a segment acquires some features from another segment, becoming more similar to it (Hualde, 107). Nasals assimilate in place of articulation due to an immediately following consonant, as in un perro [‘um ‘pe.r̄o] (p is bilabial, therefore the nasal is articulated as bilabial)
- Neutralization (Neutralización)
a. Loss of phonemic contrast in a given context. For instance, in Spanish the contrast between two phonemes /p/ and /b/ is neutralized in the coda of the syllable. An important phenomenon in Spanish is the neutralization of nasals in the coda.
- Neutralization of liquids (Neutralización de líquidas)
a. Loss of phonemic contrast between syllable-final /r/ and /l/. In Latin America this phenomenon is found basically in the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷yassss , Dominican Republic, Venezuela); e.g.: mejor [me.’hol] ‘better’
i. Rhotacism, lateralization
- Oxytone stress (Palabra oxítona, aguda)
Stressed on the last syllable; e.g. camión, lealtad
- Phoneme (fonema)
a. A unit of sound in a language. Although a phoneme can represent different phones (sounds), they are the underlying forms of these sounds. Example: /f/ is a phoneme in Spanish, but it is realized as [v] before voiced consonants, such as in the word Afganistan, although the underlying form is /f/.
- Phonotactics (fonotáctica)
a. A branch of phonology that deals with the restrictions a language imposes on the arrangement of phonemes. Example: /s/+C is not a permissible consonant cluster in Spanish.
- Strengthening (of phonological segments; also fortition) (fortición)
A sound change in which a consonant becomes more strong articulated. Example: In several Spanish dialects, when /j/ or /ʝ/ is in the attack position of a syllable, it experiences fortition by become /dʒ/. ‘Llamar’ > /ja.mar/ > [dʒa.’mar]
- Tone (2) (tono)
a. The pitch of a syllable that can be capable of distinguishing the meaning of a word. In Chinese, tone is enough to distinguish two words containing the same phones.
- Yeísmo (3)
a. A phenomenon in the Spanish language in which the distinction between the letters “ll” and “y” has been lost and are therefore pronounced the same. The realization of the two can vary however depending on the dialect as some can pronounce it as [j] and others as [ʝ].
- Žeísmo
a. The practice of pronouncing the letters “ll” and “y” as [ʒ]. It is commonly found in Uruguay and Argentina.
- Allomorph
a. A phonological variant of a morpheme. In certain languages, a morpheme can have different phonological realizations without changing its meaning or function. For example, [a.o] and [a.ðo] are both allomorphs of -ado, the past participle ending for -ar verbs. Aspiration/loss of -s for plurals, tú verbal forms. -es/-s for plurals.
- Anáfora (anaphora–phenomenon; anaphor–specific NP; in Spanish, anáfora refers to both)
a. An NP that obligatorily gets its meaning from another NP in the same clause, which is also the antecedent (Carnie P148-149). Examples are reflexive pronouns, such as herself, himself, etc., and reciprocal pronouns, such as each other. “Sí (mismo)” is an example in Spanish. Obligatorily bound within its domain.
- Aspect (4)
a. Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, state, or event denoted by a verb extends over time. Examples are the preterite and imperfect aspects of Spanish while “comía” means “I used to eat” and does not have a definite end, “comí” meaning “I ate” marks a definite point in time. (For more info Carnie P259)
- case (little C)
a. The morphology associated with grammatical relations, which represent how a DP is functioning in the sentence syntactically (Carnie P335). Some examples of cases are the nominative case which represents the subject, the accusative case which represents the object, and the genitive case which represents the possessor.
i. Example:
1. PUELL-AM PUELL-A PULS-AT
2. girl-ACC girl-NOM hit-3.SG.PRES
“The girl hits the girl”
Big C Case
a. the abstract, null Case that doesn’t necessarily have morpho-phonological realizations. Little C is the morpho-phonological
- Clitic (2)
a. A morpheme that has syntactic qualities of a word but is said to be phonologically bound to another word or phrase. Example: The possessive “ ‘s “ in English is a clitic that marks ownership.
b. Attachment to N or NP
i. The student’s assignment
ii. - The student of psychology’s assignment
iii. - The student that we invited’s assignment
iv. - The student dressed in red’s assignment
v. - The student who went out’s assignment
- Clitic pronoun
a. A clitic that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. Example: In Spanish, there are clitic object pronouns which are clitic pronouns with accusative or dative case. In the examples below “te” and “lo” are both clitic pronouns.
i. “Quiero dártelo”
ii. Quier-o dá-r-te-lo
iii. Want-1.SG.PRES Give-INF-2.SG.DAT-3.SG.ACC
Clitic
a. The term “clitic” refers to elements which are syntactically independent words or phrasal constituents, but which are phonologically dependent. Phonological dependence typically implies that the clitic undergoes phonological word-formation so that it joins a constituent which bears stress. For example, English contracted auxiliaries cliticize to a preceding constituent (e.g., She’ll leave). Phonological and syntactic conditions of cliticization vary from language to language, as do the inventories and properties of particular clitics. In Spanish:
i. Nominative - se - 3rd. Sg. ‘one’
ii. Accusative - me 1S, te 2S, lo 3SM, la 3SF, se 3S/P refl., nos 1P, os 2P, los 3PM, las 3PF
iii. Dative - me, te, le, se, nos, os, les
- Copula (2)
a. A copula is a type of verb that indicates a membership or description of the subject and the predicate. In general, they are to be verbs in several languages, such as English or Spanish (e.g., yo soy estudiante); in other languages like Russian, the copula is null (e.g., ya student). It does not denote any action. The copular verb is a main verb, meaning it does not take on auxiliary roles such as in progressive or passive structures. Compare copular “I was a student”, progressive “I was studying” and passive “In the research project, I was studied”.
- Derivational morphology
a. Derivational morphology is a type of morphology by which morphemes are added to a word to create a new word, often in a new lexical class. For example, you can add the derivational morpheme -(i)dad to the adjective feliz to create the noun felicidad. This contrasts to inflectional morphology, which utilizes morphemes to denote plurality (-s), verbal tense-aspect (verb endings); inflectional morphemes always maintain the lexical class.
Topic
a. presupposed, old information known by both speaker and hearer; Focus–new (corrective/asserted) information
i. Susana leyó el diario esta mañana
ii. Esta mañana leyó el diario Susana.
iii. SUSANA (y no Juan) leyó el diario esta mañana. (contrastive)
iv. (Zagona pp. 48-49)
- Mood (3)
a. Mood “refers to the speaker’s perspective on the event”. A speaker of Spanish can express information with objectivity or certainty (from their perspective) by using the indicative mood or express hypotheticals, possibilities, doubts and more with the subjunctive mood. In English, the distinction is not so clear with verbal forms; however, by using modal verbs (can, could, may, should, will…), a speaker of English can equally express these two moods. Imperatives also fall into another category of mood, frente a the indicative and subjunctive moods, as they express need or obligation.
- Morfema libre (free/unbound morpheme)
a. Esto mejor se entiende contrastado con morfemas ligados (bound morpheme). Vemos ejemplos de morfemas ligados en la palabra “renacer” “re”, “e” y “r” son morfemas ligados al raíz “nac”. “Re” brinda el significado de ‘otra vez’ “e” es el vocal temático y “r” final denota el infinitivo. Sin estos morfemas ligados “nac” tampoco constituye una palabra entera. Al contrario, los morfemas libres pueden existir independientemente de morfemas ligados por ejemplo “mar”, “pan” y “sol”. Obviamente a estos se les puede agregar morfemas afijos plurales ‘-es’ pero si el morfema estando libre de otros morfemas ligados constituye una palabra por sí sola es un morfema libre. También cabe mencionar que “sol” es un morfema libre por sí solo pero ligado en el contexto de “solar”.
b. Los morfemas independientes (también llamados Libres) son aquellos morfemas que no necesitan ir unidos a ningún lexema, sino que forman por sí solos una palabra. Admiten inserción entre ellos y los lexemas de otros morfemas
c. son morfemas independientes los siguientes:
i. los determinantes → el, ella, ese, un, una, etc.
ii. las preposiciones → a, con, de, desde, en, etc.
iii. las conjunciones → y, e, o, pero, aunque, etc.
iv. pronombres → él. ella, etc.
- Noncyclic event
a. A cyclic event cannot be labeled or described until its termination has been reached and therefore cannot be extended or repeated without going through all of the phases of the cycle again, a non-cyclic event is observable at the instant of its initiation and can, in theory be extended indefinitely. Aspectual. Noncyclic can be imperfect in Spanish; preterit generally are cyclic. Perfective vs imperfective may be related to it? (Papers from the XIIth Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages Silva-Corvalan April 1982)
- Papel temático (theta role)
a. A bundle of thematic relations associated with a particular argument (DP, PP, or CP) (Carnie p.240)
b. Thematic relations: Semantic relations between the predicate and the argument - used as a means of encoding selectional restrictions. Examples are: agent, experiencers, themes, goals, recipients, source, location, instrument, and beneficiary. (Carnie p 229-31)
c. Selectional restrictions are semantic restrictions on arguments. (Carnie p.240)
- Perfective
a. El perfectivo es un aspecto flexivo contrastado con el aspecto imperfectivo que en el español son aspectos de distintos puntos de vista. Es común nombrar los dos aspecto del tiempo pasado pretérito y imperfecto cuando en realidad son el pretérito perfecto y el pretérito imperfecto. El aspecto perfectivo denota los eventos completos con una duración determinada y con principio y final. Esta realidad se contrasta con el aspecto imperfectivo en que los eventos son incompletos en los que no se considera su principio o su fin. Corrió (evento acabado) vs corría (evento intermedio sin enfocar en su principio o final. (Bosque & Gutierres-Rexach p. 297-98)
- Reduplicative predicate (2)
a. an act or instance of doubling (part of) the predicate which prompts semantic changes of duration or repetition, or intensity.
b. I asked Grant and this is what he responded: “…The verb is the head of the entire VP so it still counts as part of a predicate. One type of reduplication involves simple doubling the verbal head and nothing else gets repeated. This could also be the case for intensification of adjectives like “limpio limpio” and others. The adjective is a predicate and is doubled but other parts of it are not as far as I know “la cubeta está LLENA llena de agua” With adjectives rather than increase the number of events or intensity of the action, it increases the degrees - it’s a colloquial way of saying “very/completely full””
