The Phonology of Sonorants in Bavarian German

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigate the phonological behavior of Bavarian German liquids, nasals, and vowels. These sounds undergo various changes, depending on the context, and I examine these changes in terms of features, which are determined via a contrastive hierarchy. This dissertation departs from traditional studies on German dialects, which are purely descriptive; the goal of this dissertation is to not only describe the facts from a particular dialect, but also to show how new data bear on theoretical issues in phonology. In chapter 2, I focus on demographics and methods, discussing my BG subjects and giving relevant information about the region and town in which they live. I also explain methodology of data collection and analysis. Chapter 3 presents the phonology and features of BG. I outline the underlying consonantal and vocalic segments of the dialect, providing data for contrasts and presenting distinctive features. The latter part of the chapter uses contrastive features to analyze several processes which interact with rules involving sonorant consonants. Chapter 4 focuses on BG nasals and opaque rule interactions which involve that class of sounds. I show that opacity in some data is created with a feeding rule order, as opposed to a counterbleeding order argued in most traditional accounts of opacity. I also show how the interaction of rules concerning nasals and dorsal fricative assimilation sheds light on the feature representations of dorsal fricatives. The focus of chapter 5 is on the liquids /l ʀ/. I give the distribution for liquids and show that in the coda, both liquids vocalize via a rule of Liquid Vocalization. I also discuss how Liquid Vocalization interacts with other processes in this dialect, including rules from previous chapters. In chapter 6, I discuss hiatus and its avoidance in BG, showing that BG employs several repairs for hiatus sequences, particularly Homorganic Glide Formation, Consonant Epenthesis, and Vowel Elision. I discuss BG R-Epenthesis and give data for other epenthetic consonants in BG, showing that consonant epenthesis in English and BG are not entirely the same. In chapter 7, I summarize the dissertation and suggest directions for future research.