When Synchrony Meets Diachrony: (Alveolo)Palatal Sound Patterns In Spanish and Other Romance Languages

André Zampaulo, Ph.D. (currently at California State University, Fullerton)

This dissertation investigates the evolutionary patterns of (alveolo)palatal lateral, obstruent, and approximant sounds in Spanish, i.e. [ʎ, ɟ, ʝ, j, d͡ʒ, ʒ, ʃ], with further evidence from other Romance languages, including Portuguese, French, Italian, Rumanian, Galician, and Catalan, among others. These sounds are interconnected in their manifestations across Spanish dialects, where orthographic <ll> and <y> may be pronounced in similar or different ways, giving rise to phonological phenomena such as yeísmo, ieísmo, ʒeísmo, ʃeísmo and many patterns of distinction. Through the observation of both historical and present-day dialectal data, and by relying on phonetic information to motivate a formal, constraint-based analysis of sound change, this study offers a phonetically-grounded theoretical explanation for the evolution of the sounds in question.

The novel approach put forth in this dissertation indicates how the traditionally assumed boundaries between synchrony and diachrony become hazy, once a comprehensive and evolutionary account takes into consideration both historical and current dialectal data. By looking at sound change from the perspective of speaker-listener interaction, different evolutionary pathways are accounted for in a straightforward manner, casting light upon why similar phonological change events may take place in different languages and/or the same language across periods of time. Thus, the use of synchronic data to understand diachronic evolution reveals itself to be relevant in order to establish a well-informed and cohesive continuum between the past and the present and offers an effective explanation for the evolution of sounds and their current dialectal manifestations.

Available at http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366281993