31.3813, Calls: Romance; Phonology/Germany

Fri Dec 11 01:40:44 UTC 2020

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-3813. Thu Dec 10 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.3813, Calls: Romance; Phonology/Germany

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Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2020 20:40:06
From: Elissa Pustka [elissa.pustka at univie.ac.at]
Subject: R in Romance: System, Variation and Change

Full Title: R in Romance: System, Variation and Change 

Date: 04-Oct-2021 - 07-Oct-2021
Location: Augsburg, Germany 
Contact Person: Elissa Pustka
Meeting Email: elissa.pustka at univie.ac.at

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology 

Language Family(ies): Romance 

Call Deadline: 31-Jan-2021 

Meeting Description:

Elissa Pustka (Vienna) / Eva Remberger (Vienna) / Fernando Sanchez-Miret
(Salamanca)

R in Romance: System, Variation and Change

Rhotics are a particular group of sounds. From a phonological perspective,
they appear to be relatively isolated from the rest of the phonematic system.
They are acquired particularly late in the language acquisition process
(Jakobson 1962) and, according to Trubetzkoy (1939: 131), they are „outside
the series of localization“. This is likely why, out of all languages, they
present such large and diverse levels of phonetic variation: in place of
articulation (vibrants, fricatives, approximants etc.), manner of articulation
(alveolar, uvular etc.) and voice (mainly voiced, but also voiceless) – up to
vocalization and elision (cf. Van de Velde 2001, Wiese 2011). Rhotics can
therefore be effectively used for the expression of social identity (cf. Laks
1980, Celata/Meluzzi/Ricci 2016). Furthermore, from a diachronic perspective,
rhotics are particularly susceptible to alteration. The change, noticeable all
over Europe, from the alveolar vibrant [r] (especially in Latin) to the uvular
fricative [ʁ] in the 17th century (in French, among others, but also in
German) remains still a puzzle yet to be solved (cf. Göschel 1971); in
addition, the variant [ʁ] also occurs in Brazil and Puerto Rico (cf. Graml
2009). A final question that should be raised concerns why rhotics disappear
in some languages and varieties in certain phonotactic positions, in
particular in the coda of the syllable (cf. Pustka 2012), but remain stable in
other positions (cf. Sánchez-Miret 2012).

A theoretical problem is the identity of rhotics. How are these quite
different articulatory realizations kept together in one single cognitive
representation? This surprising unity is reflected in writing; since all
R-sounds are unanimously represented by the grapheme <r>–, therefore also the
name rhotics following the Greek letter Rho <ρ> (cf. Wiese 2011).
Psycholinguistic studies furthermore show that the representation of
frequently elided /r/ is only developed with the acquisition of the writing
system (Chevrot/Beaud/Varga 2000). Lindau 1985 proposed a cognitive model of
prototypicity for this ‘chameleon’ (Wiese 2003: 41), in which the different
phonic variants are connected by a network of shared features. This could be
used for the comparison of languages and varieties (e.g the delimitation of
rhotics with respect to /l/, /w/ and /χ/), as well as the identification of
diachronic processes (strengthening and weakening processes in different
positions of the syllable). The potential for a language to have two rhotics,
as in Spanish and Catalan, where /ɾ/ : /r/ are in opposition to each other,
would have to be added.

The Romance languages and their varieties in and outside of Europe are a
promising area to test and develop this model, and therefore contribute to
general linguistic investigation from a Romance perspective.

Call for Papers: 

The intention of this workshop is to bring together current investigations on
rhotics in Romance and thus the perspectives of phonetics, phonology,
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology and language history. The
following topics are of particular interest:
 - phonetic and phonological methods for the discrimination of rhotics
 - the empirical documentation of rhotics and their frequency in different
Romance speech communities, Romance-based creoles included
 - contrastive studies of Romance and other languages (in particular German
and English), research on L1-acquisition as well as clinical and didactic
aspects
 - the variation of rhotics within the linguistic systems of individual
speakers, since it depends on phonotactic, lexical and sociolinguistic
conditions
 - the change of rhotics in Romance and their diffusion in space, also across
language boundaries
 - the theoretical modelling of the sound class(es) of rhotics 

Please send your abstract (max. 600 words) in English, German or any Romance
language to 
elissa.pustka at univie.ac.at
eva-maria.remberger at univie.ac.at and
fsmiret at usal.es.

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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-3813	
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