Ling Fridays: Weber on Blackfoot prosody

The synchrony and diachrony of prosodic structure in Blackfoot

Linguistics Fridays Colloquia talk

Natalie Weber, Yale University

Phonological processes are frequently limited to particular prosodic constituents arranged into a hierarchical prosodic structure (Hayes 1989; Nespor & Vogel 1986; Selkirk 1986, 2011). It is an open question how diachronic changes in prosodic structure condition reanalysis of phonological processes. This talk presents a case study of a pattern of epenthesis at consonant-initial morphological boundaries in Blackfoot (Algonquian). Using diachronic and synchronic arguments, I show that the unusual conditioning environment is best understood as the result of a change in prosodic structure within the polysynthetic word relative to the rest of the Algonquian family, which allowed an existing process of epenthesis to be reanalyzed. I end by considering ways that a theory of change in prosodic structure might constrain synchronic phonology.