This paper intends to illustrate an analysis about one of the common phonological process known as spirantization in Amharic in the framework of Optimality and Feature Geometry. The theoretical models we have been assuming - known as the linear theory of representation-was quite successful in explaining a number of facts about sound systems. A defining characteristic of the theory is the view that segments are matrices of feature values, where every segment has a specification for each of the two dozen distinctive features. There were, however, phonological realms which the theory had largely ignored, and that were spirintization and assimilation. The process of these phonological processes in Amharic language can be shown and represented in Optimality Theory and Feature Geometry more clearly than in linear phonology. The method used in this research is analytical-descriptive. Six native speakers who were selected from different age groups that ranges from 30 to 50 and different educational levels were interviewed. Furthermore, free conversation and life stories were also included in the corpus. The data gathered is phonemically transcribed following the IPA conventions as revised to 2005 and analyzed using Optimality and Feature Geometry. Amharic, which is one of the most important languages of Ethiopia, is mainly spoken in Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. The language belongs to Transversal South-Ethio-Semitic group of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. According to the 2007 Population Census, Census (2008) report, there are around 22 million Amharic native speakers and additional 7 million second language speakers. The language spoken in this region can be divided into four general regional dialects. The investigation of the major dialectal variations and isoglosses of Amharic are scanty. The available literature identifies four major dialects of Amharic: Gojjam, Gonder, Shewa and Wollo. Although the isoglosses and internal dialectal variations are hitherto not clearly established, the literature agrees on the mutual intelligibility among the dialects of this language. In Amharic, there are two consonants which engage in spirantization process. These consonants include /b, k / which are changed to the fricatives. Lenition patterns are expressed in terms of conflicts between the effort minimization constraint, LAZY, and on the other hand a class of lenition-blocking constraints. Spirantization, for example, is analyzed in terms of rankings where LAZY dominates IDENT (x). Under the opposite ranking, spirantization is blocked. There are three major feature groups, laryngeal features, manner features and place features, which Clements calls Class Nodes. In spirantization process, in the manner node, the feature (continuant) is added to a stop consonant, producing a fricative at the same place.
| Published in | Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 7, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14 |
| Page(s) | 115-120 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Amharic, Feature Geometry (FG), Lenition, Optimality Theory (OT), Spirantization
| [1] | Clements, G. (1985). “The Geometry of Phonological Features”, Phonology Year book 2, Cambridge university press, pp. 225-252. |
| [2] | Halle, M. (1992). “Phonological Features” International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford, vol, 3, pp. 207-12. |
| [3] | J. T. Jensen. (2004). Principles of Generative Phonology: An Introduction. John Benjamin’s publishing Company. |
| [4] | Kar, S. (2009). “Gemination in Bangla: An Optimality-theoretic analysis”. The Dhaka University, Journal of Linguistics. vol, 1 (2), pp. 87–114. |
| [5] | Kirchner, R. (2001). An Effort Based-Approach to Consonant Lenition. Doctoral dissertation. New York: Rutledge. |
| [6] | Lombardi, L. (1996). “Positional Faithfulness and Voicing Assimilation in Optimality Theory” Ms., University of Maryland, College Park. |
| [7] | Lambordi. (1996). “Restrictions on direction of voicing assimilation: an OT account”, University of Maryland, Working Papers in Linguistics, 1996b, 4, |
| [8] | McCarthy, J. (1988). Feature geometry and Dependency: a review. Phonetica 45: 84–108. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, PP. 385-420. |
| [9] | McCarthy, J. And Prince, A. (1995). “Faithfulness and Reduplicative Identity”, Papers in Optimality Theory. In J. Beckman, S. Urbanczyk and L. WalshPP. 84-102. |
| [10] | McCarthy, J. (2002). “A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory”, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| [11] | McCarthy, J. (2008). “Doing Optimality Theory: Applying Theory to Data”, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. doi: 10. 1002/9781444301182,). |
| [12] | Mulugeta Seyoum (2014). “The particle ʔɨnde in Amharic”, Studies in Ethiopian Languages. Addis Ababa, 3, PP. 83-95. |
| [13] | Padgett, J. (1995). “Feature Classes”, University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers, Papers in Optimality Theory, ed. by Jill N. Beckman, Laura Walsh Dickey and Suzanne Urbanczyk, GLSA. |
| [14] | Prince, Alan and Paul Smolensky. 1993. Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. RuCCS-TR-2, Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers University. ROA-XYZ. |
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APA Style
Tilahun Negash, Yoseph Zewdu, Haile Kassahun. (2019). Current Trends in Phonology: Theoretic Account of Amharic Spirintization. Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(3), 115-120. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14
ACS Style
Tilahun Negash; Yoseph Zewdu; Haile Kassahun. Current Trends in Phonology: Theoretic Account of Amharic Spirintization. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2019, 7(3), 115-120. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14
AMA Style
Tilahun Negash, Yoseph Zewdu, Haile Kassahun. Current Trends in Phonology: Theoretic Account of Amharic Spirintization. Humanit Soc Sci. 2019;7(3):115-120. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14,
author = {Tilahun Negash and Yoseph Zewdu and Haile Kassahun},
title = {Current Trends in Phonology: Theoretic Account of Amharic Spirintization},
journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
volume = {7},
number = {3},
pages = {115-120},
doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20190703.14},
abstract = {This paper intends to illustrate an analysis about one of the common phonological process known as spirantization in Amharic in the framework of Optimality and Feature Geometry. The theoretical models we have been assuming - known as the linear theory of representation-was quite successful in explaining a number of facts about sound systems. A defining characteristic of the theory is the view that segments are matrices of feature values, where every segment has a specification for each of the two dozen distinctive features. There were, however, phonological realms which the theory had largely ignored, and that were spirintization and assimilation. The process of these phonological processes in Amharic language can be shown and represented in Optimality Theory and Feature Geometry more clearly than in linear phonology. The method used in this research is analytical-descriptive. Six native speakers who were selected from different age groups that ranges from 30 to 50 and different educational levels were interviewed. Furthermore, free conversation and life stories were also included in the corpus. The data gathered is phonemically transcribed following the IPA conventions as revised to 2005 and analyzed using Optimality and Feature Geometry. Amharic, which is one of the most important languages of Ethiopia, is mainly spoken in Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. The language belongs to Transversal South-Ethio-Semitic group of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. According to the 2007 Population Census, Census (2008) report, there are around 22 million Amharic native speakers and additional 7 million second language speakers. The language spoken in this region can be divided into four general regional dialects. The investigation of the major dialectal variations and isoglosses of Amharic are scanty. The available literature identifies four major dialects of Amharic: Gojjam, Gonder, Shewa and Wollo. Although the isoglosses and internal dialectal variations are hitherto not clearly established, the literature agrees on the mutual intelligibility among the dialects of this language. In Amharic, there are two consonants which engage in spirantization process. These consonants include /b, k / which are changed to the fricatives. Lenition patterns are expressed in terms of conflicts between the effort minimization constraint, LAZY, and on the other hand a class of lenition-blocking constraints. Spirantization, for example, is analyzed in terms of rankings where LAZY dominates IDENT (x). Under the opposite ranking, spirantization is blocked. There are three major feature groups, laryngeal features, manner features and place features, which Clements calls Class Nodes. In spirantization process, in the manner node, the feature (continuant) is added to a stop consonant, producing a fricative at the same place.},
year = {2019}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Current Trends in Phonology: Theoretic Account of Amharic Spirintization AU - Tilahun Negash AU - Yoseph Zewdu AU - Haile Kassahun Y1 - 2019/07/04 PY - 2019 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14 DO - 10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14 T2 - Humanities and Social Sciences JF - Humanities and Social Sciences JO - Humanities and Social Sciences SP - 115 EP - 120 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8184 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20190703.14 AB - This paper intends to illustrate an analysis about one of the common phonological process known as spirantization in Amharic in the framework of Optimality and Feature Geometry. The theoretical models we have been assuming - known as the linear theory of representation-was quite successful in explaining a number of facts about sound systems. A defining characteristic of the theory is the view that segments are matrices of feature values, where every segment has a specification for each of the two dozen distinctive features. There were, however, phonological realms which the theory had largely ignored, and that were spirintization and assimilation. The process of these phonological processes in Amharic language can be shown and represented in Optimality Theory and Feature Geometry more clearly than in linear phonology. The method used in this research is analytical-descriptive. Six native speakers who were selected from different age groups that ranges from 30 to 50 and different educational levels were interviewed. Furthermore, free conversation and life stories were also included in the corpus. The data gathered is phonemically transcribed following the IPA conventions as revised to 2005 and analyzed using Optimality and Feature Geometry. Amharic, which is one of the most important languages of Ethiopia, is mainly spoken in Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. The language belongs to Transversal South-Ethio-Semitic group of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. According to the 2007 Population Census, Census (2008) report, there are around 22 million Amharic native speakers and additional 7 million second language speakers. The language spoken in this region can be divided into four general regional dialects. The investigation of the major dialectal variations and isoglosses of Amharic are scanty. The available literature identifies four major dialects of Amharic: Gojjam, Gonder, Shewa and Wollo. Although the isoglosses and internal dialectal variations are hitherto not clearly established, the literature agrees on the mutual intelligibility among the dialects of this language. In Amharic, there are two consonants which engage in spirantization process. These consonants include /b, k / which are changed to the fricatives. Lenition patterns are expressed in terms of conflicts between the effort minimization constraint, LAZY, and on the other hand a class of lenition-blocking constraints. Spirantization, for example, is analyzed in terms of rankings where LAZY dominates IDENT (x). Under the opposite ranking, spirantization is blocked. There are three major feature groups, laryngeal features, manner features and place features, which Clements calls Class Nodes. In spirantization process, in the manner node, the feature (continuant) is added to a stop consonant, producing a fricative at the same place. VL - 7 IS - 3 ER -
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