1. INTRODUCTION Although syllables are not directly recoverable from the speech signal, the assum... more 1. INTRODUCTION Although syllables are not directly recoverable from the speech signal, the assumption that segments are grouped into syllables has proven useful in explaining numerous phonological patterns of individual languages. The syllable is therefore viewed as an abstract constituent of the mental representation of sound structure (Al-Ani and May 1973), and the analysis of the syllable structure of any individual language must be grounded in comprehensive analysis of the overall phonological structure of that language. The theory of syllable structure has been strongly influenced by the study of Arabic, for two reasons. First, many dialects of Arabic provide examples of regular and productive processes that make reference to syllable structure, as well as clear diagnostics for syllable division, including insertion of a vowel into clusters of consonants that could not otherwise be accommodated in the inventory of possible syllables and stress systems based on syllable weight (see references in section 3). Second, different varieties of spoken Arabic instantiate different inventories of syllable types, and these different inventories are associated with a constellation of different properties across the varieties (e.g., Fischer and Jastrow 1980, Mitchell 1993). Arabic therefore provides invaluable data for the linguist's quest to identify the range of variation across human languages. This chapter surveys the types of evidence that have been used to argue for syllable structure in Arabic; the range of variation in syllable structures across different dialects; the competing analyses of syllable-sensitive phonological processes; and the implications of the Arabic data for theories of sound structure. Section 2 begins with an overview of the internal structure of syllables, the concept of syllable weight, and the relationship between syllables and higher level constituents. In section 3, we turn to specific processes that depend on syllable structure: word stress, vowel shortening, vowel insertion, and vowel deletion. Section 4 reviews proposals concerning the correlations among different properties of syllable structure and the typological claims based on these correlations. In the following discussion, forms in square brackets represent transcriptions of surface forms using the International Phonetic Alphabet, while those between slashes represent underlying representations. Long vowels are represented as a sequence of two identical vowels; breaks between syllables are indicated with a period; morpheme boundaries and word boundaries are indicated by '+' and '#', respectively.
1. INTRODUCTION Although syllables are not directly recoverable from the speech signal, the assum... more 1. INTRODUCTION Although syllables are not directly recoverable from the speech signal, the assumption that segments are grouped into syllables has proven useful in explaining numerous phonological patterns of individual languages. The syllable is therefore viewed as an abstract constituent of the mental representation of sound structure (Al-Ani and May 1973), and the analysis of the syllable structure of any individual language must be grounded in comprehensive analysis of the overall phonological structure of that language. The theory of syllable structure has been strongly influenced by the study of Arabic, for two reasons. First, many dialects of Arabic provide examples of regular and productive processes that make reference to syllable structure, as well as clear diagnostics for syllable division, including insertion of a vowel into clusters of consonants that could not otherwise be accommodated in the inventory of possible syllables and stress systems based on syllable weight (see references in section 3). Second, different varieties of spoken Arabic instantiate different inventories of syllable types, and these different inventories are associated with a constellation of different properties across the varieties (e.g., Fischer and Jastrow 1980, Mitchell 1993). Arabic therefore provides invaluable data for the linguist's quest to identify the range of variation across human languages. This chapter surveys the types of evidence that have been used to argue for syllable structure in Arabic; the range of variation in syllable structures across different dialects; the competing analyses of syllable-sensitive phonological processes; and the implications of the Arabic data for theories of sound structure. Section 2 begins with an overview of the internal structure of syllables, the concept of syllable weight, and the relationship between syllables and higher level constituents. In section 3, we turn to specific processes that depend on syllable structure: word stress, vowel shortening, vowel insertion, and vowel deletion. Section 4 reviews proposals concerning the correlations among different properties of syllable structure and the typological claims based on these correlations. In the following discussion, forms in square brackets represent transcriptions of surface forms using the International Phonetic Alphabet, while those between slashes represent underlying representations. Long vowels are represented as a sequence of two identical vowels; breaks between syllables are indicated with a period; morpheme boundaries and word boundaries are indicated by '+' and '#', respectively.
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