| ROA: | 577 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Variation of s-voicing in two varieties of Italian |
| Authors: | Martin Krämer |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 27 |
| Abstract: | In this paper I give an optimality theoretic account of intervocalic s-voicing in Italian. The analysis covers the complete distributional patterns of the voiced and voiceless coronal fricative found in Northern Italian (Lombardian) in comparison with Tuscan. The comparison with Tuscan reveals that the word-medial position is particularly resistant against neutralisation. This resistance stands in conflict with observations in the literature that the left margin of roots is the preferred place for the expression of phonemic contrast (Beckman 1998 and references cited there). The particular behaviour of the fricative in the middle of the word will be accounted for by an extension of the contiguity constraint (McCarthy & Prince 1995) to the featural level. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Phonology |
| Article: | Version 1 |