Chapter published in:
Sonic Signatures: Studies dedicated to John Harris
Edited by Geoff Lindsey and Andrew Nevins
[Language Faculty and Beyond 14] 2017
► pp. 277–296

Bogus clusters and lenition in Tuscan Italian

Implications for the theory of sonority

| University of Lyon / UCL – London
It is widely believed that syllabification is determined by a sonority-driven algorithm like the Sonority Sequencing Principle (Selkirk 1984; Clements 1990, Vaux and Wolfe 2009). In this study, I evaluate this claim in light of Tuscan Italian. Using three phonological diagnostics, it will be possible to split the consonant clusters (CCs) of Tuscan into three types: Branching onset, Coda-Onset and Bogus clusters. Metrical lengthening and Gorgia Toscana filter out Branching onsets leaving behind Coda-onset and Bogus clusters as remnants. Elsewhere, the process known as Epenthesis (in non-standard dialects) filters out the Bogus clusters instead leaving Branching onsets and Coda-Onset clusters as the remnant. Comparing the two sets of remnants allows for the extraction of the Coda-Onset set. Using a Sonority Differential analysis (Parker 2011), it becomes evident (process by process) that sonority is not the primary (or a preferable) mechanism in determining these sets. In seeking an alternative analysis, Gorgia Toscana will be presented in some detail along with its implications for sonority. Gorgia underapplies in Bogus clusters. I will provide a suggestive sketch for a competing representational solution based on Strict CV (in particular Lowenstamm 2003 and Brun-Trigaud & Scheer 2010). Informed in part by Interlude Theory (Steriade 2008), it offers an alternative account for the lenition facts: compressible CCs (Branching onsets) are equivalent to a singleton stop, while non-compressible clusters (Coda-Onset and Bogus clusters) are equivalent to geminates. Unlike sonority based analyses, the phonological definition of the clusters offered here has a clear relationship with the phonological processes that they undergo.
Keywords: consonant clusters, sonority, syllable structure, Italian, Bogus clusters, Gorgia Toscana , metrical lengthening, lenition, strict CV phonology
Article outline
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Metrical lengthening restrictions and sonority
  • 3. Gorgia Toscana and sonority
    • 3.1Description of Gorgia
    • 3.2Defining the triggering context of Gorgia
  • 4.Epenthesis and sonority
    • 4.1Phonological processes and CC classes
  • 5.Defining the cluster sets and explaining Gorgia
    • 5.1Branching onsets and compressibility
    • 5.2Summary
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.14.c16
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