Part of
Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic VariationEdited by Ermenegildo Bidese, Federica Cognola and Manuela Caterina Moroni
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 234] 2016
► pp. 25–52
Edited by Ermenegildo Bidese, Federica Cognola and Manuela Caterina Moroni
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 234] 2016
► pp. 25–52
Germanic and Romance onset clusters – how to account for microvariation
In this paper the restrictions imposed on onset clusters in Standard German and Standard Italian are compared to the – minimally different – restrictions in the Germanic dialects of Tyrolean, Mòcheno and Lusern Cimbrian, and the Romance dialects of Trentino. Both standard varieties allow onset clusters with a sonority distance (SD, computed according to the sonority indexes proposed in Parker 2011) of 4, marginally 3 intervals, while the corresponding dialects allow for SD = 2. The observed pattern of microvariation can be understood as minimal variation between grammars. We give a precise measure of this minimal grammatical difference by performing a typological analysis in the framework of Optimality Theory, yielding the typological properties of the system, understood as the necessary and sufficient ranking conditions generating every single language of the typology (Alber & Prince, in preparation, see also Alber, DelBusso & Prince 2016). Minimal grammatical difference can then be defined as minimal change of the property values defining each language.
References (40)
Alber, Birgit. 2001. Regional variation and edges. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 20(1): 3-41.
. 2014. Obstruent systems of Northern Italy. In Approcci diversi alla dialettologia italiana contemporanea [Numero speciale de L’Italia Dialettale, LXXV, serie terza, XI], Roberta D’Alessandro et al. (eds), 13-36. Pisa: Università di Pisa.
Alber, B., DelBusso, N. & A. Prince. 2016. From intensional properties to universal support. Language 92(2). e88-e116. 
Alber, Birgit. & Lanthaler, Franz. 2004. Der Silbenonset in den Tiroler Dialekten. In
Perspektiven Eins. Akten der 1. Tagung Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft in Italien
(Rome, 6th-7th February 2004), Claudio Di Meola et al. (eds), 75-88. Rome: Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici.
Alber, Birgit & Prince, Alan. In preparation. Typologies. Ms. Università degli Studi di Verona and Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ.
Benware, Wilbur A. 1996. Processual change and phonetic analogy: Early New High German<s> > <sch>. American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures 8(2): 265-287.
Brasoveanu, Adrian & Prince, Alan. 2011. Ranking & necessity: The fusional reduction algorithm. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29(1): 3-70.
Butt, Matthias. 1992. Sonority and the explanation of syllable structure. Linguistische Berichte 137: 45-67.
Cavirani, Edoardo. 2015. Modelling Phonologization. Vowel Reduction and Epenthesis in Lunigiana Dialects. PhD dissertation, University of Pisa and University of Leiden.
Clements, George Nick. 1990. The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In Papers in Laboratory Phonology, I: Between the Grammar and Physics of Speech, John Kingston & Mary Beckman (eds), 283-333. Cambridge: CUP.
Cordin, Patrizia. (ed.). 2005. L’ Archivio lessicale dei dialetti trentini [Labirinti 84]. Trento: Editrice Università degli Studi di Trento.
Danis, Nick. 2014. Deriving Interactions of Complex Stops. Ms. Rutgers University. [ROA-1220]
de Lacy, Paul. 2002. The Formal Expression of Markedness. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Amherst MA: GLSA. [ROA-542]
Duden. 1996. Deutsches Universalwörterbuch A-Z. 3., neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Revised by Günther Drosdowski and the Dudeneditorial staff. Mannheim: Dudenverlag.
Graffi, Giorgio & Scalise, Sergio. 2002. Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Hall, Tracy Alan. 1992. Syllable Structure and Syllable-Related Processes in German [Linguistische Arbeiten 276]. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
. 2000. Phonologie. Eine Einführung. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Ito, Junko & Mester, Armin. 1999. The structure of the phonological lexicon. In The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics, Tsujimura, Natsuko (ed.), 62-100. Malden MA: Blackwell.
Kiparsky, Paul. 2014. New perspectives in historical linguistics. In The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans (eds), 64-102. New York NY: Routledge.
Krämer, Martin. 2009. The Phonology of Italian. Oxford: OUP.
Loporcaro, Michele. 2009. Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani. Roma: Editori Laterza.
Morelli, Frida. 1999. The Phonotactics and Phonology of Obstruent Clusters in Optimality Theory. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park. [ROA-420]
Nespor, Marina. 1993. Fonologia. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Panieri, Luca (ed). 2014. Zimbarbort. Börtarpuach Lusérnesch-Belesch / Belesch-Lusérnesch. Dizionario del cimbro di Luserna. Kulturinstitut Lusérn.
Parker, Steve. 2011. Sonority. In The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Vol. 2, Mark van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume & Keren Rice (eds), 1160-1184. Oxford: Blackwell.
Paul, Hermann. 1881[2007]. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik. 25. Auflage, neu bearbeitet von Thomas Klein, Hans-Joachim Solms, Klaus-Peter Wegera. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Prince, Alan. 2002. Entailed ranking arguments. Ms. [ROA-500].
. 1999. Paninian relations. Handout of talk at the
University of Marburg
. <[URL]>
Prince, Alan & Smolensky, Paul. 1993/2004. Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Blackwell. [ROA-537].
Prince, Alan, Tesar, Bruce & Merchant, Nazarré. 2007-2016. OTWorkplace. <[URL]>
Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1949[1966]. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti [Traduzione di Salvatore Persichino]. Torino: Einaudi.
Selkirk, Elizabeth. 1984a. On the major class features and syllable theory. In Language Sound Structure, Mark Aronoff & Richard T. Oehrle (eds), 107-136. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
s kloa’ be.be 2009. Piccolo vocabolario mòcheno. Bersntoler Kulturinstitut.
Steriade, Donca. 1982. Greek Prosodies and the Nature of Syllabification. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Tyroller, Hans. 2003. Grammatische Beschreibung des Zimbrischen in Lusern. Wiesbaden: Steiner.
van Oostendorp, Marc. In preparation. Variation in Generative Grammar. Ms., Meertens Instituut Amsterdam.
Vennemann, Theo. 1972. On the theory of sillabic phonology. Linguistische Berichte 18: 1-18.
Wiese, Richard. 1996. The Phonology of German. Oxford: OUP.
Wiltshire, Caroline & Maranzana, Elisa. 1999. Geminates and clusters in Italian and Piedmontese: A case for OT ranking. In Formal Perspectives on Romance Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 185], Marc Authier, Barbara Bullock & Lisa Reed (eds), 289-303. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Zec, Draga. 2007. The Syllable. In The Handbook of Phonology, Paul de Lacy (ed.), 161-194. Cambridge: CUP.
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Link, Samantha
2024. Correspondence of Consonant Clustering with Particular Vowels in German Dialects. Languages 9:7 ► pp. 255 ff. 
Alber, Birgit & Sabine Arndt-Lappe
2023. Anchoring in truncation: A typological analysis. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 41:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Apostolopoulou, Eirini
2022. Place of articulation shifts in sound change: A gradual road to the unmarked. Acta Linguistica Academica 69:1 ► pp. 17 ff.
Apostolopoulou, Eirini
2023. Long-Distance Metathesis of Liquids in Romance: A Property Theory Analysis of Diachronic Change. In Internal and External Causes of Language Change, ► pp. 213 ff.
Lameli, Alfred
2022. Syllable Structure Spatially Distributed: Patterns of Monosyllables in German Dialects. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 34:3 ► pp. 241 ff.
van Oostendorp, Marc
2020. Germanic Syllable Structure. In The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics, ► pp. 33 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.