Doctoral Dissertation Research: Palatalization in Romanian

在罗曼语系的大背景下，罗马尼亚语在显示一组腭形辅音（以发音辅音时抬起舌头为特征）方面独具一格。例如，[lup]“wolf”与[lup']“wolves”的区别只在于最后一个辅音的腭形属性，由撇号表示。本研究将通过实验证明这种类型的舌化在更大的罗曼语家族中的存在，从而深入了解在一个语言家族中尚未得到充分研究的现象。先前的实验表明，罗马尼亚语的腭化的感知特性与其他存在这种现象的语言（如俄语和日语）的感知特性有所不同。虽然在其他语言中，辅音的舌化在肺泡发音位置（如t）比在唇部发音位置（如p）更容易被察觉，但在罗马尼亚语中，情况似乎正好相反。为了验证和进一步调查舌化的感知特性，以及分析其声学特性，目前的研究项目将在罗马尼亚与母语为这种语言的人进行另外三个实验。从这项工作中得到的好处是三重的。首先，本研究将提供系统的实验文件的存在，这种类型的腭化在罗马尼亚。其次，从这项调查得出的描述性概括将有助于解决有关罗马尼亚语和更普遍的腭化辅音性质的一些理论问题的新数据。最后，我们将探讨罗马尼亚语腭语化与更大的类型学框架的不同之处，从而从跨语言的角度推进我们对腭语化的理解。

Within the larger context of the Romance languages, Romanian stands alone in displaying a set of palatalized consonants (characterized by the raising of the tongue with the articulation of the consonant). For example, [lup] 'wolf' differs from [lup'] 'wolves' only in the presence of the palatalized property of the final consonant, indicated by the apostrophe. The present study will document experimentally the existence of this type of palatalization within the larger Romance family, thereby providing insight into an understudied phenomenon in a language family that has otherwise been studied abundantly. Previous experiments have shown that the perceptual properties of Romanian palatalization are somewhat different from those obtained in other languages where this phenomenon is present, such as Russian and Japanese. While in other languages palatalization of consonants seems to be more perceptible at the alveolar place of articulation (e.g. t) than at the labial place of articulation (e.g. p), in Romanian the opposite seems to be the case. In order to verify and further investigate the perceptual properties of palatalization, as well as to analyze its acoustic properties, the present research project will conduct three additional experiments in Romania with native speakers of this language.The benefits to be derived from this work are threefold. First, this study will provide systematic experimental documentation of the existence of this type of palatalization in Romanian. Second, the descriptive generalizations resulting from this investigation will contribute new data relevant in settling a number of theoretical issues regarding the nature of palatalized consonants in Romanian and more generally. Finally, the ways in which Romanian palatalization both departs from and conforms to the larger typological framework will be explored, thereby advancing our understanding of palatalization from a cross-linguistic perspective.