6.198 Qs: Nasal palatals, Articles, Summer Confs/Wrkshops, Old Spanish

[The Linguist List]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-198. Mon 13 Feb 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 139
 
Subject: 6.198 Qs: Nasal palatals, Articles, Summer Confs/Wrkshops, Old Spanish
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
 
                           REMINDER
[We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then  strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list.   This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.]
 
-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------
 
1)
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 95 12:09:56 +1000
From: Knut Olawsky (olawsky at sapir.ling.uni-duesseldorf.de)
Subject: Qs: Nasal palatals
 
2)
Date:   Thu, 9 Feb 1995 16:40:08 -1000
From: Caroline Steele (csteele at uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu)
Subject: articles
 
3)
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 22:49:27 -0800
From: ddolan at darkwing.uoregon.edu
Subject: Summer Conferences/Workshops
 
4)
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 95 11:08:02 CST
From: GA5123 at SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU
Subject:  Cedilla in Old Spanish
 
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 95 12:09:56 +1000
From: Knut Olawsky (olawsky at sapir.ling.uni-duesseldorf.de)
Subject: Qs: Nasal palatals
 
 
In Dagbani, a Gur language spoken in Northern Ghana, there is a
phonological difference between the palatal nasal (in IPA: n plus
downward stroke on the left, I transcribe it /N/ here) and a palatalized
/n/ = here: [nJ] (in IPA: small j lifted up after n).
Ex.: (nyee) = /Nee/ (with palatal n) = "nose",
             */nee/ (with "normal" alveolar /n/: ungramm.)
c.f. (neei) = /nJeei/ or /neei/ = "wake up". In this case the
palatalization is optional.
Now I wonder whether there is also a PHONETIC distinction of the sounds:
1. an articulatory difference between palatal and palatalized /n/
2. an acustically perceptible distinction (I havn't achieved to recognize
the difference on the spectrogram).
I would be grateful to hear your comments on this.
 
---------------------------------------------------
2)
Date:   Thu, 9 Feb 1995 16:40:08 -1000
From: Caroline Steele (csteele at uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu)
Subject: articles
 
Does anybody have any curent information on the English articles A, AN,
and THE?
 
Caroline L. Steele
Linguistics Department
Moore Hall
University of Hawaii
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 22:49:27 -0800
From: ddolan at darkwing.uoregon.edu
Subject: Summer Conferences/Workshops
 
I am looking for information on any Summer conferences or workshops
being held on the West Coast dealing with 17th Century French Literature,
modern language instruction, teaching the Humanities, or any related
areas.  If you know of any conferences or workshops, or have any suggestions
 where
I might find this information, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
 
Dennis Dolan
Graduate Student, Arts Management
University of Oregon
ddolan at darkwing.uoregon.edu
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4)
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 95 11:08:02 CST
From: GA5123 at SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU
Subject:  Cedilla in Old Spanish
 
  The following is from Robert K. Spaulding, _How Spanish Grew_, p. 79:
"The tendency at the beginning [i.e. 10th-11th centuries]
is to use _z_ to describe the phoneme yielded
by [Lat.] _ce_, _ci_, and _ti_ + vowel:  _conzedo_ = [Lat.] _concedo_,
_razionem_ = [Lat.] _rationem_.  In the Visigothic style of handwriting
(letra visigoda) _z_ often had at the top a large hook in the form of _c_,
which was likely to occupy the [vertical] space of the entire line,
causing the body of the letter to descend to the line below.
This use of two forms of one and the same letter, for one sound,
continued with the introduction of the French style (letra francesa),
but in time the _z_ came to be a mere flourish, that is, a cedilla,
or "little _z_" at the bottom of the _c_.  From the early years of
the thirteenth century it became customary to use _c,_ [i.e. c-cedilla]
for the unvoiced sound of _ts_ [s^] (as in boots):  Old Spanish _c,inco_
[and, on the other hand] _z_ for the corresponding voiced equivalent,
_dz_ [z^] (as in [Eng.] adze):  Old Spanish _fazer_..."
  But Spaulding continues (p. 157) "By the middle of the sixteenth century
_c,_ and _z_ stood for one and the same sound and were constantly
confused in writing....  _Z_ had become unvoiced..."  And (p. 158)
"_C,_ was officially abandoned as a character in the Spanish alphabet
in 1741."
  In short -- what began as a flourish grew into letterhood,
and in so doing reduced its host letter to flourishhood.
Does anyone know a name for such a process?
  By the way, Spanish orthography took a slight shift in 1994 also.
Representatives from the (20?) national language academies
voted (not without some grumbling) to "abolish" _ch_ as a unit
(e.g. for alphabetizing).  Evidently this was a response to
pressure on Spain from the European Union.  If put into practice,
it will mean, for example, that in telephone books Chavez will
precede Cifuentes, rather than follow Cuevas as it has done til now.
A similar blow was dealt to _ll_, while _n~_ remains safe for the time being.
 
-----------------------------------
Lee Hartman                         ga5123 at siucvmb.siu.edu
Department of Foreign Languages
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL  62901-4521  U.S.A.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-6-198.