Hypocoristic palatalization in Basque and historical applications
Jackson Wolf
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan , United StatesAbstract
This paper examines the processes of expressive palatalization in the Basque diminutive. Basque has two forms of the diminutive, a list of inflectional suffixes and a method of palatalization with specific phonological requirements. A speaker will first palatalize any coronal sibilants in the word. If there are none, then a dental obstruent that has a palatal counterpart is the next candidate. If there are again, none, then the last candidate is a dental coronal, but only the consonant on the leftmost edge. However, if there is a sibilant and a dental consonant, only the sibilants are palatalized. If there is a dental obstruent and a dental sonorant, only the obstruent is palatalized. To describe this process, I adopt an OT approach and an autosegmental approach to determine where the [+palatal] inflection morpheme can attach. Finally, I show the application of unworking the hypocoristic formation through internal reconstruction of Basque in animal names to produce two reconstructions.
Keywords:
diminutive, phonology, historical linguistics, autosegmental, OTReferences
Alvarez, O., Eizagirre, X., Flores, A., Grande, N., Hidalgo, E., Inarra, I., Lauzirika, J. and Portugal, T. 2015. The Unification of the Basque Language. Euskaliak. http://euskalkiak.eus/en/euskararen_batasuna.php
Bengtson, J. D. 2017. The Anthropological Context of Euskaro-Caucasian. Iran and the Causus. 21(1). Brill. (Crossref)
Bérces, K. B. and Ulfsbjorninn, S. 2022. Cross-morphemic palatalization in Getxo Basque: empty positions, bipositionality, and place licensing. The Linguistic Review. De Gruyter Mouton.
Crowley, T. and Bowern, C. 2010. An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 4th edition. Oxford University Press.
Corum, C. 1972. Palatalization Phenomena in Basque. ASJU.
Hualde, J. I., Lujanbio, O., and Joxe, J. Z. 2010. Goizueta Basque. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40(1). Cambridge University Press. (Crossref)
Hualde, J. I. 2021. On the comparative method, internal reconstruction, and other analytical tools for the reconstruction of the evolution of the Basque language: An Assessment. Anuario del semenario de filologia vasca. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Crossref)
Ito, J. 1989. A prosodic theory of epenthesis. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 7. (Crossref)
Ito, J. and Mester, A. 2003. Lexical and Postlexical phonology in Optimality Theory: Evidence from Japanese. Linguistische Berichte. Sonderheft 11: Resolving Conflicts in Grammars. Ed. by G. Fanselow and C. Féry. 183-207.
King, J. 1994. The Basque Language – A practical introduction. University of Nevada Press.
Kuryłowicz, J 1947. La nature des procès dit analogiques. Acta Linguistica 5: 17-34.
Saltarelli, M., Azkarate M., Farwell D., de Urbina, J. O. and Oñederra L. 1988. Basque. Croom Helm Descriptive Grammars. London: Croom Helm
Urrutia Badiola, A. 2010. Euskararen Herri Hizkeren Atlasa. Bilbo. ISSN: 0210-1564.
Salaberri, P. 2003. On hypocoristic formation in Basque. FONTES LINGVAE VASCONVM stvdia et docvmenta. 35(93). Gobierno de Navarra. (Crossref)
Salaberri, P. and Salaberri, I. 2014. A Descriptive Analysis of Basque Hypocoristics. FONTES LINGVAE VASCONVM stvdia et docvmenta. 46(112). Gobierno de Navarra.
Zuazo, K 2008. Euskalkiak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_dialects#/media/File:Euskalkiak_koldo_zuazo_2008.png
Zubiri, J. J. 2002. Haur hizkeraren erabileraz. Euskararen kutxa. HIZPIDE 49.
