Metathesis, syllable weight and stress in Sevillian Spanish
Madeline Gilbert
November 2024 

This study focuses on stress and metathesis in Sevillian Spanish, investigating how their interaction sheds light on phonological representations. Metathesis affects /s/-voiceless stop sequences, moving a debuccalized coda /s/ to the release of the following stop (/pasta/→[patha]). This process plausibly changes syllable structure: the syllable where /s/ originated is closed at one representational level, but open on the surface ([pah.ta]→[pa.tha]). The change in syllable structure could affect weight-sensitive stress, depending on which form listeners reference for stress assignment. I present results from a stress judgment task in which Sevillian listeners treated syllables where /s/ had metathesized out similarly to heavy penults, and differently from light penults. I outline several analyses to account for their behavior, and suggest that a comprehensive analysis could (a) include gestural representations; (b) separate stress from metathesis, so that phonetic variability in the realization of metathesis is permitted but does not affect stress.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008589 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Phonology, Accepted
keywords:	metathesis, stress, process interactions, perception, opacity, gestural representations, spanish, phonology
Downloaded:	438 times

 

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