Read more
This book presents a thorough investigation of the main diachronic changes that have taken place in the palatal sounds of the Romance languages, as well as their current patterns of synchronic variation. Andre Zampaulo draws on extensive data not only from diachronic sources, but also from a range of current phonetic, phonological, and dialectal studies to motivate a formal, constraint-based account of palatal sound change. The analysis takes into account the role of phonetic information in the shaping of phonological patterns, approaching sound change from its inception during the speaker-listener interaction and formalizing it as the difference in constraint ranking between the grammar of the speaker and that of the listener-turned-speaker. The volume offers insights into how and why similar types of change may take place in different varieties and/or the same language at different times, and will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonology, Romance linguistics, and dialectology more broadly.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Theoretical considerations
- 3: The phonetics of palatals
- 4: Palatals in the history of the Romance languages
- 5: Palatals in the Romance languages today
- 6: Palatal sound change in the Romance languages: A unified account
- Appendices
- References
- Index
About the author
André Zampaulo is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Linguistics at California State University, Fullerton. He received his PhD in Hispanic Linguistics in 2013 from The Ohio State University, specializing in phonetics, phonology, and historical linguistics. His work has been published in edited volumes from Routledge and John Benjamins and in journals such as Diachronica and Revista de Historia de la Lengua Española. He is the author of Os sons do português: Uma introdução prática à fonética e à pronúncia da língua portuguesa (Routledge, 2018).
Summary
This book presents a formal, constraint-based account of the main diachronic and synchronic patterns of variation in the palatal sounds of the Romance languages. It will appeal to graduate students and researchers in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonology, Romance linguistics, and dialectology more broadly.
Additional text
Zampaulo's monograph is a much needed volume on diachronic and synchronic palatalisation in Romance. It boasts a truly impressive range of coverage, particularly from a diachronic perspective. Its phonetically grounded analysis is innovative, and provides new avenues for the exploration of the complexity underlying palatalisation. This volume will be of special interest for researchers and students focusing on historical Romance linguistics, Spanish dialectology and phonological theory, particularly those interested in palatalisation and, more generally, place assimilation.
