AUTOSEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY Anni Leming LING 504 Dr. Daniel Sanford Spring 2011 University of New Mexico

WHAT IS AUTOSEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY?  Underlying and surface forms comprise strings of segments arranged in two or more tiers (Goldsmith, 1979).  Non-linear model allows overlap among features.  Treats elements of phonology (features) as not being grouped together in segments, but they lead their own, independent lives (Oostendorp, 2005).  Goes beyond the place and manner of articulation and focuses on stress, *tone, vowels, and nasal harmony.

SALIENT TERMS  Tier: levels of phonological segments that differ regarding the features that are specified in them.  Tone bearing unit (TBU): most commonly known as the syllabic nucleus and is linked by association lines to tones.  Association lines: lines between segments on tiers.  Association convention: every tone needs to be linked to some vowel.  Well-formedness Conditions (WFC):  Each vowel must be associated with (at least) on toneme.  Each toneme must be associated with (at least) one vowel.  No association lines may cross

TIERS & ASSOCIATION LINES ú ʔ ù “fire” (Margi spoken in Nigeria) u ʔ u H L  Segmental tier  Tonal tier

KIKUYU (BANTU LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN NIGERIA) GOLDSMITH (1976); VAN OOSTENDORP (2005) SUB MARKER OBJ MARKER ROOTTENSE SUFFIX to ‘we’mo ‘him’ r ɔ r ‘look at’ ir ε ma ‘they’ma ‘them’tom ‘send’ir ε ROOTSUB ‘to’ SUB ‘ma’ rɔrrɔr tò r ɔ ̀ r ìrέmá r ɔ r ìrέ tò mò r ɔ ̀ r ìrέmá mó r ɔ ̀ r ìrέ tò mà r ɔ r ìrέ má má r ɔ r ìrέ tom tò tòm írέmá tóm írέ tò mò tòm írέ má mó tòm írέ tò mà tóm írέ má má tóm írέ

UNDERLYING REPRESENTATION AND ASSOCIATION RULES Rule that associates the first tone to the second syllable of the word C 0 V T to ma r ɔ r ir ε L H to ma r ɔ r ir ε L H tomamoma rɔrrɔr tomir ε LHLHLHH

ASSOCIATION CONVENTION AND WELL- FORMEDNESS CONDITIONS to ma r ɔ r ir ε L H L H to ma r ɔ r ir ε L H LH

REFERENCES  Goldsmith, J. (1990). Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell Ltd.  Goldsmith, J. (1979). The aims of autosegmental phonology. In D. Dinnsen (ed.), Current Approaches to Phonological Theory, Pp Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  Hagberg, L. R. (2006). An autosegmental theory of stress. SIL e-Books, 3. [Dallas]: SIL International, 208 p.  Leben, W. R. (2006). Rethinking autosegmental phonology. Selected proceedings of the 35 th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, ed. John Mugane et al., Pp Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.  van Oostendorp, M. (2005). Autosegmental phonology. Handout of presentation. The Netherlands: Universiteit Leiden