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Article In: Journal of Historical Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Sibilants at the edge and beyond

Deletion, preservation, and exceptionality in Old French word-final /S/-clusters

ORCiD logo with link | Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY)
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Abstract
This paper presents a case study in diachronic phonology within a stratal perspective by examining evolving licensing possibilities for consonant clusters containing sibilants (“/S/-clusters”) in Old French (OF) (10th–14th centuries), as well as somewhat before and after this period, with a particular focus on exceptional sequences at domain edges (word, word-internal morpheme edges, phrase), especially the word-final edge. Expanding on Rainsford, Thomas M. 2020. Syllable Structure and Prosodic Words in Early Old French. Papers in Historical Phonology 51.63–89. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar proposal of word-final empty-headed syllables for early OF, and informed by the diachrony of word-initial and word-medial /S/-clusters and the repair processes affecting them (prothesis, coda /s/ deletion), the formal analysis of word-final /S/-clusters identifies parallels and contrasts amongst edge and word-internal positions as repair processes’ domains of application expand and contract diachronically (word to phrase, phrase to word, word to word-internal stem edges). The account identifies a cohesive diachronic trajectory for /S/-clusters at edges as well as where exceptional /S/-adjuncts are licensed to anchor, with cross-linguistic implications for the coda or onset status of word-final consonants, the licensing of adjunct segments, word-final empty-headed syllables, and stratal phonological structure in a diachronic perspective.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The status of OF /S/-clusters word-medially and at word edges
    • 2.1OF coda /s/ deletion in word-medial syllables
    • 2.2Word-initial /#sC/
    • 2.3/S/ in word-final consonant sequences
      • 2.3.1Distribution and diachrony of /S/ in word-final consonant sequences
      • 2.3.2What are word-final consonant sequences in OF?
  • 3.Proposed account of word-final /S/-clusters: Deletion and preservation in diachrony
    • 3.1/S/ as C1 in word-final C1C2: [...(V)S1C2#]
    • 3.2Word-final singleton /S/: [...(V)S#]
    • 3.3/S/ in word-final triconsonantal sequences
  • 4.Implications within French diachrony and beyond
    • 4.1Are word-final and word-internal contexts different?
    • 4.2Stratal effects in OF and beyond
    • 4.3Implications on constraints of word-final degenerate syllables
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (53)
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