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Title:The lexical tone contrast of Roermond Dutch in Optimality Theory
Authors:Carlos Gussenhoven
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Abstract:The lexical tone contrast of Roermond Dutch in Optimality Theory



Carlos Gussenhoven

University of Nijmegen





The dialect of Roermond is one of a number of Dutch and German

dialects with a lexical tone contrast, comparable to the opposition

between Accent 1 and Accent 2 in the Scandinavian languages. In the

Roermond dialect, there is a monovalent opposition between toneless

words (Accent 1) and words that have a H-tone on the second mora of

the stressed syllable (Accent 2). There are about 50 tonal minimal

pairs. The interest in the dialect is in the clearly moraic character

of tonal associations, and in the ordering of the intonational and

lexical tones. First, unlike Swedish, the focus marking tone appears

before, rather than after, the lexical tone in the stressed syllable,

where it occupies the first mora. Second, when an Accent-2 word with

final stress occurs finally in the intonational phrase, the lexical

tone is ordered after the final boundary tones of the intonational

phrase, which occupy the first (in the case of declarative boundary L)

or both (in the case of interrogative boundary HL) moras of that

syllable, leaving the lexical tone to associate in final position to

the second mora. A judicious ranking of a number of alignment

constraints can solve the unorthodox tonal orderings, and also account

for a striking pattern of leftward spreading of final boundary tones

to IP-internal stressed syllables, when these have an otherwise free

mora. The constraint NoRise, finally, appears to have two distinct

effects: it forces assimilation of LH to LL if H has no other

association, but prevents the association of H to the right of L in a

bimoraic syllable if it H has an association elsewhere.



The paper is to be published in Merle Horne (ed.) Intonation: Theory

and Experiment. Amsterdam: Kluwer.




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Article:Version 1