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This study investigated the longitudinal relationship between children’s domain-general cognitive constraints underlying phonological and sentence processing development in a big sample of typically developing children. 104 children were tested on non-linguistic processing speed, phonological skills (phonological short term memory, phonological knowledge, phonological working memory), and sentence processing abilities (sentence repetition and receptive grammar) in 1 st grade (aged 6 to 6.5) and one year later. A cross-lagged structural equation model showed that non-linguistic processing speed was a concurrent predictor of phonological skills, and that phonology had a powerful effect on the child’s sentence processing abilities concurrently and longitudinally, providing clear evidence for the role of domain-general processes in the developmental pathway of language. These findings support a cascaded cognitive view of language development and pose important challenges for evaluation and intervention strategies in childhood.

We compare the complexity of idiosyncratic sound patterns involving American English /ɹ/ with the relative simplicity of clear/dark /l/-allophony patterns found in English and other languages. For /ɹ/, we report an ultrasound-based articulatory study of twenty-seven speakers of American English. Two speakers use only retroflex /ɹ/, sixteen use only bunched /ɹ/, and nine use both /ɹ/ types, with idiosyncratic allophonic distributions. These allophony patterns are covert, because the difference between bunched and retroflex /ɹ/ is not readily perceived by listeners. We compare this typology of /ɹ/-allophony patterns to clear/dark /l/-allophony patterns in seventeen languages. On the basis of the observed patterns, we show that individual-level /ɹ/ allophony and language-level /l/ allophony exhibit similar phonetic grounding, but that /ɹ/-allophony patterns are considerably more complex. The low complexity of language-level /l/-allophony patterns, which are more readily perceived by listeners, is argued to be the result of individual-level contact in the development of sound patterns. More generally, we argue that familiar phonological patterns (which are relatively simple and homogeneous within communities) may arise from individual-level articulatory patterns, which may be complex and speaker-specific, by a process of koineization. We conclude that two classic properties of phonological rules, phonetic naturalness and simplicity, arise from different sources.

Research suggests new foreign language (FL) words are learned more easily if their phonology follows the phonotactic rules of the native language. Very little is known, however, about the impact of orthography on FL learning. This study investigated the cognitive mechanisms supporting the learning of words with familiar and unfamiliar orthographies. Participants took part in learning and meaning recall tasks, as well as a series of cognitive tasks (short-term and working memory tasks and tasks assessing their phonological and acoustic abilities). Orthographic and phonological familiarity judgments were collected using another sample of participants. Using a mixed-effects model, the results showed that orthographic familiarity impacted FL word learning even after controlling for phonological familiarity. However, there were no interactions with cognitive abilities.

While consonant acquisition clearly requires mastery of different articulatory configurations (segments), sub-segmental features and suprasegmental contexts influence both order of acquisition and mismatch (error) patterns (Bérubé, Bernhardt, Stemberger & Ciocca, 2020). Constraints-based nonlinear phonology provides a comprehensive framework for investigating the impact of sub- and suprasegmental impacts on acquisition (Bernhardt & Stemberger, 1998). The current study adopted such a framework in order to investigate these questions for Granada Spanish. Single-word samples of monolingual preschoolers in Granada (29 typically developing; 30 with protracted phonological development) were transcribed by native Spanish speakers in consultation with an international team. Beta regression analyses showed significant effects of age, developmental group, and word structure variables (word length, stress, position of consonants and syllables within the word); salience, markedness and/or frequency across the phonological hierarchy accounted for many patterns. The study further demonstrates the impacts of sub- and suprasegmental constraints of the phonological system on consonant acquisition.

We report a statistical test of a long-standing hypothesis in the literature: that phonological neutralization rules are more common at the ends of lexical domains than the beginnings (Houlihan 1975 et seq.). We collected descriptive grammars for an areally and genetically diverse set of fifty languages, identified all active phonological rules that target the edge of a lexical domain (root, stem, word, phrase, or utterance), and further coded each rule for whether it was phonemically neutralizing, that is, able to create surface homophony. We find that such neutralizing rules are strongly, significantly less common at the beginnings of lexical domains relative to ends, and that this pattern is strikingly consistent across all languages within the data set. We show that this pattern is not an artifact of a tendency for syllable codas to be a target for phonological neutralization, nor is it associated with a suffixing or prefixing preference. Consistent with previous accounts, we argue that this pattern may ultimately be based in the greater average information content of phonological categories early in the word, which itself is a consequence of incremental processing in lexical access.

Arabic has three main vowels, which are the vowel /a/ (fathah), the vowel /i/ (kasrah), and the vowel /u/ (dˁammah). This study analyses the vowels of the Arabic Present Tense in jafʕal form which is related to the arrangement of letters. This study aims at helping Arabic language students who have difficulty determining the correct vowel of the three vowel fractions. In addition, this study can help linguists in general and Arabic linguists in particular to determine the vowel reading of the letter ʕayn (ع) on the active verb pattern of modern Arabic jafʕal which is divided into vowels /a/ (fathah), vowel /i/ (kasrah), and the vowel /u/ (dˁammah). This study applies a qualitative method. Al-Khali:l dictionary and al-MaɁaniy online dictionary were referred for data collection. Three syllable active verbs were analyzed as vowels for these three syllable active verbs in Arabic will change to three different vowels in the Present Tense of the verb. Based on the phonological method proposed by El-Wadi (2005), the analysis focused on the arrangement of the letters ʕayn (ع) in the Past Tense verb which is processed from the phonological method pioneered by Chomsky and Halle (1968). Clearly, the findings of the study have shown that there are effects on the vowel on the ʕayn (ع) active verb of the Arabic Present Tense caused by the arrangement of ʕayn (ع) on the active Arabic verb of the past. At the same time, this study provides an alternative that shows that the vowels at the position of the letter ʕayn (ع) of the active Arabic verb of the present time are non-random.

Abstract In Greek the accent can fall on one of the last three syllables of the word if the final syllable contains a short vowel, and on one of the last two syllables if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong. This restriction of the accent is known as the Law of Limitation. According to some authors, a further restriction applies: if the word ends in two consonants, the accent can only fall on one of the last two syllables. For instance, while πολυπῖδαξ ‘of many springs’ is possible, *πολύπῑδαξ is not. However, this additional restriction is not accepted by all authors. While the πολυπῖδαξ type is typically not addressed at all by these authors, a recent proposal has examined this type and suggests that it owes its penultimate accent to analogical pressure from other words with columnar accentuation. Accepting the morphological explanation of the πολυπῖδαξ type, this study explores the mechanisms leading to columnar accentuation not only in this type, but also in words like χαρίεν ‘charming’ and ἱκέτις ‘supplicant’.

Phonological rule innovation is thought to come about via reanalysis of some phonetic variation (e.g., Bermúdez-Otero, 2007; Hyman, 1975; Ohala, 1981; Pierrehumbert, 2001). Yet, empirical evidence suggests instead that the role of phonetic variation during phonological rule innovation is minor (Fruehwald, 2013, 2016). This paper adds to this ongoing debate an empirical analysis of an emergent allophonic contrast—an “/æ/ nasal system”—in White Michigan English. Analyses of speaker-level acoustic data from a sociolinguistic corpus (n = 36) and a subphonemic judgment task (n = 107) suggest that Lansing exhibits gradual phonological rule emergence. Social conditioning appears to act as the catalyst of phonological rule formation and its spread. The mechanism of actuation was thus “the chance alignment of social and phonetic variability” (Baker, Archangeli, & Mielke, 2011), suggesting that social conditioning on phonetic variability must play a major role in phonological emergence.

Through an analysis of a database of roughly 900 Japanese Sign Language (JSL) toponyms, this study undertakes an examination of social and structural factors that potentially shape JSL sign language toponym outputs. The two structural factors examined are the tendency for toponyms to index semantically transparent source morphemes, and the possible production of output constraints based on the phonological complexity of the output. The two social factors examined are the influence of proximity to deaf schools and population density. The investigation finds the tests for social influences inconclusive pending further qualitative evidence; however, an investigation of the current ethnographic literature shows, for the most part, that literacy acts as an essential, although perhaps insufficient condition for spreading exonyms, signs that index the written or spoken source name. One of the tests for structural factors provides quantitative evidence for the tendency of JSL toponyms to favor indexation to semantically transparent segments. This work contributes significantly to the etiological understanding of toponym production across sign languages.

In this paper, we revisit the phenomenon of Negative Concord focusing on the Strict vs. Non-Strict divide. With Catalan as a case in point, we show that Negative Concord Items (NCIs) are not negative quantifiers (NQs) or polarity items (PIs) but inherently negative indefinites by virtue of carrying a negative feature [neg] that contributes a negative semantics to the proposition and is subject to a syntax–phonology constraint that forces it to overtly c-command Tense in compliance with Jespersen’s NegFirst principle. We argue that to satisfy such constraint, [neg] can disembody from the NCI via overt Move F(eature) to adjoin at a pre-Infl(ection) position and be Spelled-Out homophonous to the negative marker. The Strict vs. Non-Strict contrast follows from whether [neg] always moves independently from the rest of the NCI via Move F (Strict Negative Concord) or predates, whenever possible, on another movement of the NCI that places [neg] in the required pre-Infl position (Non-Strict Negative Concord) thus not having to disembody.