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The phonological status of Dutch epenthetic schwa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2002

Natasha Warner
Affiliation:
University of Arizona and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Allard Jongman
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
Anne Cutler
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Doris Mücke
Affiliation:
University of Cologne

Abstract

In this paper, we use articulatory measures to determine whether Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process or a concrete phonetic process depending on articulatory timing. We examine tongue position during /l/ before underlying schwa and epenthetic schwa and in coda position. We find greater tip raising before both types of schwa, indicating light /l/ before schwa and dark /l/ in coda position. We argue that the ability of epenthetic schwa to condition the /l/ alternation shows that Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process involving insertion of some unit, and cannot be accounted for within Articulatory Phonology.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We would like to thank Bryan Gick and Taehong Cho for advice on articulograph methodology and for discussion of this material, as well as three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments. We are also grateful to audiences at UCLA, the University of Arizona, LabPhon VII and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics for their comments on earlier versions of this work. We would like to thank Theo Klinker, Niels Janssen, Keren Shatzman, Rachèl Kemps, Aoju Chen, Tau van Dijck and Anne Pier Salverda for their help with various aspects of this project, and Inge Doehring and Herbert Baumann for technical assistance. Finally, we are particularly indebted to our speakers. Any errors are, of course, our own responsibility. This work was carried out while the second author was a visitor at the Max Planck Institute.