{"id":18269,"date":"2026-10-05T06:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whamit.mit.edu\/?p=18269"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:48:40","slug":"phonology-circle-10-5-hani-naeem-mit-chelsea-tang-mit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/2026\/10\/05\/phonology-circle-10-5-hani-naeem-mit-chelsea-tang-mit\/","title":{"rendered":"Phonology Circle 10\/5 - Hani Na’eem (MIT) & Chelsea Tang (MIT)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For our Phonology Circle this Monday (10\/5), we will be hearing two AMP practice talks from Hani Na\u0092eem (MIT) and Chelsea<\/span> Tang (MIT).<\/p>\n

Time: <\/strong>Monday, October 5 5pm-6:30pm

\nLocation: <\/strong>32-D831<\/p>\n

Speaker #1:\u00a0<\/strong>Hani Na’eem (MIT)
\nTitle:<\/b>\u00a0The nature of emphasis spread in Jordanian Arabic
\nAbstract:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this practice for an AMP poster presentation, I will give a summary of my work on the phenomenon of emphasis spread<\/em>\u00a0(ES) in Jordanian Arabic (JA). ES is a process whereby emphatics<\/em>, coronals with a secondary constriction near the uvula, lower the second formant (F2) of sounds in their context, most saliently backing low vowels which are otherwise front. Previous work on ES has documented a directional asymmetry of the effect: while vowels to the left of the emphatics have their F2 uniformly lowered regardless of distance and the consonantal context, the effect on following vowels gradually fades out with distance and, in some descriptions, is blocked by high segments. The gradience of the rightward effect led to varying accounts with respect to the domain of spreading and\/or the nature of the mechanism that gives rise to the effect. Some analyses (Davis 1995; Herzallah 1990; Jaber et al. 2019; McCarthy 1997; Younes 1982, 1993) posit a phonological account of rightward [rtr] harmony with various restrictions on its domain of application; others (Zawaydeh 1999; Zawaydeh & de Jong 2002) argue that ES is a \u0091phonetic\u0092 rather than a \u0091phonological\u0092 process.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on acoustic data from a production experiment, I argue that (i) emphatics spread [rtr] non-iteratively to two vowels to the right of the trigger, (ii) that the effect on the second vowel to the right does not reduce to a purely phonetic\/coarticulatory mechanism, and (iii) that the observed gradience\/smaller acoustic effect on this distant vowel is due to anticipatory coarticulation with the following context, which is outside the direct purview of the ES process. Adopting Walker\u0092s (2011) formalism, I analyze both leftward and rightward ES through licensing constraints that seek to maximally license [rtr] in the surrounding context. While the constraint responsible for leftward spreading is highly ranked, the one responsible for rightward spreading is dominated by a\u00a0CrispEdge\u00a0constraint that delimits the spreading domain which I propose \u0096 as a first approximation \u0096 is sensitive to foot structure. The resulting analysis captures the directional asymmetry in ES while allowing the gradient phonetic realization of rightward spreading to emerge from the interaction between a categorical feature-spreading process and independent coarticulatory mechanisms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Speaker #2: <\/strong>Chelsea Tang\u00a0(MIT)
\nTitle:<\/b> From Denasalization to Backcopying in Nyandarua G?k?y?: the Emergence of Base-Reduplicant Identity from Sound Change
\nAbstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This presentation examines how a historical change in the consonant inventory of Nyandarua G?k?y? gives rise to a new pattern of consonant backcopying. Earlier descriptions of G?k?y? document a consonant system with prenasalized voiced stops but no corresponding plain voiced stops, while Nyandarua and other northern and southern varieties have undergone the loss of prenasalization, resulting in only plain voiced stops (Ngure 2005). The two varieties also differ in reduplication. Both Standard and Nyandarua G?k?y? show templatic backcopying, where the reduplicant can affect the shape or vowel quality of the base, but consonant backcopying is found only in Nyandarua.<\/p>\n

I argue that the emergence of consonant backcopying follows from the historical change in Nyandarua Gi?ku?yu? consonant inventory. Diachronic work in Optimality Theory models sound change through changes in constraint ranking (Jacobs 1995; Holt 2003, 2015; Lle\u00f3 2003), and many analyses show that a single instance of constraint reranking can have consequences for multiple (sometimes apparently unrelated) phonological processes (Holt 2003; Miglio & Mor\u00e9n 2003; Padgett 2003; Smith 2023; among others). Building on these accounts, I analyze the loss of prenasalized stops as a reranking of *NC and IO-Id[nas], such that *NC comes to dominate IO-Id[nas] in Nyandarua, while varieties that retain prenasalized stops have the IO-Id[nas] >> *NC grammar. In reduplication, templatic backcopying in both varieties establishes that BR-faith is active. However, the effect of BR-faith on consonants is masked by a higher-ranked IO-Id[nas] that preserves prenasalized stops in Standard G?k?y?. By contrast, in Nyandarua, the reranking of *NC and IO-Id[nas] responsible for denasalization also places IO-Id[nas] below BR-Id[nas], allowing consonant backcopying to surface. The historical loss of prenasalized stops therefore not only changes the consonant inventory, but also gives rise to consonant backcopying in Nyandarua G?k?y?.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For our Phonology Circle this Monday (10\/5), we will be hearing two AMP practice talks from Hani Na\u0092eem (MIT) and Chelsea Tang (MIT). Time: Monday, October 5 5pm-6:30pm Location: 32-D831 Speaker #1:\u00a0Hani Na’eem (MIT) Title:\u00a0The nature of emphasis spread in Jordanian Arabic Abstract:\u00a0 In this practice for an AMP poster presentation, I will give a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}