The interaction of gradient and categorical processes of long-distance vowel-to-vowel assimilation in Kazan Tatar | Posted on:2016-11-13 | Degree:M.A | Type:Thesis | University:Purdue University | Candidate:Conklin, Jenna T | Full Text:PDF | GTID:2475390017475572 | Subject:Linguistics | Abstract/Summary: | | Vowel harmony and vowel-to-vowel coarticulation are long-distance assimilatory processes wherein certain vowels trigger systematic changes in adjacent vowels; harmony effects phonological change, resulting in phonemic alternation, while coarticulation effects phonetic change. This thesis offers a novel acoustic analysis of the coarticulatory processes present in disharmonic words in Kazan Tatar, a language with left-to-right palatal harmony. While right-to-left palatal coarticulation is found to be widespread, left-to-right palatal coarticulation is virtually nonexistent in Tatar. It is hypothesized that gradient and categorical processes sharing the same triggers, targets, target feature, and direction cannot coexist; the diachronic implication for Tatar is that, once coarticulation was phonologized into harmony, the original coarticulatory process that gave rise to harmony was eradicated. This two-way interaction between gradient and categorical processes argues in favor of the distinctly phonological nature of vowel harmony and against a phonetic account of harmony.;In the second part, an acoustic analysis of rounding assimilation in Kazan Tatar is undertaken. The acoustic data suggests that neither rounding harmony nor labial coarticulation are present in Kazan Tatar. | Keywords/Search Tags: | Kazan tatar, Harmony, Processes, Coarticulation | | Related items |
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