Branching onsets and segment licensing: the lack of debuccalization or deletion of the muta cum liquida clusters in central Sardinian dialects

Lucia Molinu (1)

1 BCL, équipe Dialectologie et Linguistique formelle

Some central Sardinian dialects undergo debuccalization of /f/ and /k/. The clusters /fr/ and /kr/, on the other hand, fail to undergo debuccal-ization or deletion (Wagner 1984 [1941]; Contini 1987; Molinu 1997). The purpose of this article is to attempt to answer the following questions: why does debuccalization of /f/ and /k/ or /f/ deletion systematically affect the fricative in a simple onset but not when /f/ and /k/ are in a branching onset? Which syllabic and segmental requirements determine the different outcomes of /f/ and /k/? I will focus on Rice's model (Avery and) which makes use of the representation of segments to account for their licensing in a syllabic constituent. Indeed Rice assumes two principles (government and binding) which license the consonants in tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic sequences in structural terms, i.e. on the basis of the segment structure. I will account for the absence of de-buccalization in the /fr/ and /kr/ clusters showing that the debuccal-ization process is blocked or repaired when it violates a principle on the structural relationships that hold within segments of branching onsets.

Mots clés: Government; Syllabic Structure; Sardinian Dialects; Binding; Debuccalization

Domaines: Linguistique

Lucia Molinu. Branching onsets and segment licensing: the lack of debuccalization or deletion of the muta cum liquida clusters in central Sardinian dialects. Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali / Working Papers in Linguistics and Oriental Studies, 2017, 3, pp.135 - 155. ⟨10.13128/QULSO-2421-7220-21342⟩. ⟨hal-01763178⟩