Doctoral Dissertation Research: Palatalization in Romanian

在罗曼语的大背景下，罗马尼亚语在显示一组舌化辅音方面是独一无二的(特点是辅音发音时舌头抬起)。例如，[lup]‘wolf’与[lup‘]’wolves‘的区别只在于尾辅音的舌化性质，用撇号表示。本研究将以实验的方式证明这类舌化现象在较大的罗曼语系中的存在，从而为我们深入了解这一已被广泛研究的语言语系中一个未被充分研究的现象提供帮助。此前的实验表明，罗马尼亚人舌化的知觉特征与俄语和日语等存在这种现象的其他语言的知觉特征有所不同。在其他语言中，辅音的舌化似乎在牙槽发音位置(例如t)比在唇形发音位置(例如p)更容易察觉，但在罗马尼亚语中情况似乎正好相反。为了验证和进一步研究腭化的知觉特性，以及分析其声学特性，本研究项目将在罗马尼亚对以这种语言为母语的人进行另外三项实验。首先，这项研究将为罗马尼亚人中存在这种类型的腭化提供系统的实验文献。其次，本次研究得出的描述性概括将为解决罗马尼亚语和更广泛的舌化辅音性质的一些理论问题提供新的数据。最后，我们将探讨罗马尼亚舌化如何偏离和符合更大的类型学框架，从而促进我们从跨语言的角度对舌化的理解。

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.