I begyndelsen af ordet

Konsonantklynger i moderne hebraisk

Authors

  • Christophe Zerakitsky Vies University of Copenhagen

Keywords:

Syllabification, Modern Hebrew, Phonotactics, Phonetics

Abstract

The elision of the vowel shewa (ᵊ) has resulted in the emergence of consonant clusters in Modern Hebrew. Clusters in native words are extremely limited in distribution. The consonants of some surface clusters undisputedly belong to the same underlying syllable while others appear to underlyingly belong to two syllables. The question is thus whether those surface clusters are underlying clusters or mere surface phenomena.
By asking speakers of Hebrew how they would syllabify words with initial consonant clusters, I have found that some Hebrew speakers show a tendency to break up the clusters. This is particularly clear in monosyllabic words, where the majority of my informants break up the cluster.
This suggests that for some Hebrew speakers, consonant clusters are disallowed at a certain level of phonological abstraction. Therefore, I propose that consonant clusters belong to the phonotactics of the prosodic word, not the syllable, and that the first segment in surface clusters be analyzed as extrasyllabic.

Author Biography

Christophe Zerakitsky Vies, University of Copenhagen

Christophe Viés studerer funktionel-kognitiv lingvistik på Københavns Universitet. Han interesserer sig særligt for forholdet med fonologi og grammatiske konstruktioner, stavelsesteori, afroasiatiske sprog (især semitisk og berber) og dynamikken mellem diakroni og synkroni i den fonologiske analyse.

References

Asherov, Daniel & Outi Bat-El (2019). Syllable structure and complex onsets in Modern Hebrew. Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 11(1), 69–95.

Bat-El, Outi (2012). Prosodic alternations in Modern Hebrew segolates. I Muchnik, Malka & Tsvi Sadan (red.): Studies in Modern Hebrew and Jewish languages – in honor of Ora Schwarzwald. Jerusalem: Carmel.

—— (2006). Consonant identity and consonant copy: the segmental and prosodic structure of Hebrew reduplication. Linguistic Inquiry, 37 (2), 179-210.

—— (1989). Phonology and word structure in Modern Hebrew. Ph.d.-afhandling, University of California, Los Angeles. Lokaliseret d. 27. februar 2020: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34514517_Phonology_and_word_structure_in_modern_Hebrew.

Vies, I begyndelsen af ordet

Language Works, 5(1), 2020 20

Bolozky, Shmuel (1978). Some aspects of Modern Hebrew phonology. I Aronson Berman, Ruth (red.): Modern Hebrew Structure, 11-67. Tel Aviv: Universities Publishing Projects.

Cohen-Gross, Dalia (2017). The perception of syllable boundaries in native Hebrew speaking university students. Hebrew Studies 58, 315-338.

—— (2015). The syllable structure in the Modern Hebrew noun and adjective system. Hebrew Studies 56, 175-190.

Faust, Noam (2019). Vowel alternation in Modern Hebrew. Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 11(1), 119-134.

Greenberg, Joseph (1965). Some generalizations concerning initial and final consonant sequences. Linguistics, 3 (18), 5-34.

Huehnergard, John (2019). Proto-Semitic. I Huehnergard, John & Na’ama Pat-El (Red.): The Semitic Languages (2. udgave), 49-79. Abingdon: Routledge.

Kreitman, Rina (2008). The phonetics and phonology of onset clusters: the case of Modern Hebrew. Ph.d.-afhandling, Cornell University. Lokaliseret d. 1. marts 2020: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.850.3440&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

—— (2003). Diminutive reduplication in Modern Hebrew. Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory, 15, 101-129.

Lombardi, Linda (1995). Laryngeal neutralization and syllable wellformedness. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 13 (1), 39-74.

Rubin, Aaron David (2010). A brief introduction to the Semitic languages. Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press LLC.

Share, David L. & Peri Blum (2005). Syllable splitting in literate and preliterate Hebrew speakers: onset and rimes or bodies and coda? Journal of experimental child psychology, 92, 182-202.

Ussishkin, Adam (1999). The inadequacy of the consonantal root: Modern Hebrew denominal verbs and output-output correspondence. Phonology, 16(3), 401-442.

Zhakevich, Philip & Benjamin Kantor (2019). Modern Hebrew. I Huehnergard, John & Na’ama Pat-El (Red.): The Semitic Languages (2. udgave), 571-610. Abingdon: Routledge.

Downloads

Published

2020-07-03

How to Cite

Vies, C. Z. (2020). I begyndelsen af ordet: Konsonantklynger i moderne hebraisk. Journal of Language Works - Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrift, 5(1), 5–20. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/lwo/article/view/121215