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Liquid Lowering in Kurpian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2018

JERZY RUBACH
JERZY RUBACH*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa & University of Warsaw
*
Author’s addresses: Instytut Anglistyki, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Hoża 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Polandjerzy.rubach@uw.edu.pl & Department of Linguistics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USAjerzy-rubach@uiowa.edu
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Abstract

This article analyzes the process that I call Liquid Lowering which turns high vowels $i$ and ɨ  into $e$ before liquids, schematically iɨ → e/ – rl. The process began to operate in Polish in the 16th century. I look at the modern reflexes of Liquid Lowering in Standard Polish and in Kurpian, a dialect of Polish that dates back to the 17th century, and argue that the rule is dead in Standard Polish but not in Kurpian, where it is productive in derived environments. The modeling of Liquid Lowering as a phonological process has implications for phonological theory. In particular, it calls for the recognition of derivational levels, as envisaged by Derivational Optimality Theory. It is argued that Standard Optimality Theory, with its principle of strict parallelism, cannot account for the data because it runs into insoluble ranking paradoxes. Furthermore, the analysis bears on the issue of abstractness by positing vowels that never occur phonetically. The abstract vowels are exchanged for the actually occurring vowels before reaching the surface representation. I term this type of shift change virement.

Keywords

abstractness of underlying representationsderivationalismKurpian phonologyOptimality Theory
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , 01 August 2018 , pp. 493 - 526
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

[1]

I would like to thank the three Journal of Linguistics referees for discussion and criticism, which led to considerable improvement of both the content and the presentation of my analysis. However, let me add that the responsibility for this article is solely mine. I would also like to thank my Kurpian consultants: Tadeusz Grec, Henryk Gadomski and Mirosław Grzyb. The research for this article was supported in part by a University of Warsaw grant from the National Center of Science number 2013/09/B/HS2/01095.

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