The Stop Contrast of Bernese in Misiones and Ohio – a Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Klosinski, Robert
- Graduate Program:
- German (PHD)
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 06, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Michael Putnam, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Richard Page, Major Field Member
John Lipski, Outside Unit & Field Member
Joseph C. Salmons, Special Member
Carrie Jackson, Program Head/Chair
Matthew Carlson, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Bernese
Phonology
Phonetics - Abstract:
- This dissertation focuses on the stop contrasts of Bernese as spoken by two heritage communities in Misiones, Argentina (MB) and Ohio, USA (OB). Thus, this project takes a look at two geographically independent but linguistically related language dyads (Scontras & Putnam, 2020) into consideration to pinpoint a change within the sound system for these speakers. The heritage language in both of these communities is Bernese, but the larger surrounding societal language is Spanish in Misiones and English in Ohio. Each of these languages has a different stop contrast. The active phonological feature for Spanish is [slack] that distinguishes voiced from voiceless stops, while English uses [spread] to distinguish the stop series. Bernese uses neither. Instead, the primary acoustic correlate for the stop contrast in Bernese is a durational measurement called closure duration (CD). As ‘fortis’ consonants have longer closure durations than the relatively shorter ‘lenis’ consonants, the difference is viewed as one of a singleton-geminate distinction. In order to identify a change within a level of the sound system, a modular framework is used (Natvig, 2019). This framework is based on the Stability Gradient by Van Coetsem (1988) and it can account for a change due to impositions that occur at the phonetic, phonetic-phonological level, or phonological level based on acoustic correlates, such as closure duration and VOT. This dissertation not only analyzes the stops in the three different word environments, but it also considers the effects the contact languages have on Bernese. In addition, longitudinal data is looked at for the Ohio Bernese variety, which allows for a diachronic analysis. Globally, the results indicate that CD remains the main acoustic correlate for both communities. However, the results reveal that there is not merely a change at the phonetic level for OB that would see altered CDs. Instead, VOT seems to become a secondary cue for the OB speakers, suggesting a change in the phonetic-phonological level. Thus, acting as an enhancement to increase the contrast within the stop series. MB does not seem to make use of a secondary correlate, as statistical analyses indicate that CD remains the sole robust correlate.