<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The paper provides fine-grained evidence concerning the development of syllabic consonants /r l/ in Czech, that is only sketched in the existing literature. The evidence is based on an automatic parser that identifies potential syllable-projecting segments according to sonority. The parser was applied to six verse texts from the 14th–16th centuries, which show a strong tendency towards octosyllabicity. The data provided by the parser newly reveal that the shift from non-syllabic to syllabic /r l/ is position-dependent: word-medial non-syllabic strings C(r/l)C change more rapidly than non-syllabic word-final ones C(r/l)#. This finding is in line with a cross-linguistic observation that non-syllabic C(r/l)C are marked, hence they are regularly syllabified prior to less marked C(r/l)#.
</abstract>

The paper provides fine-grained evidence concerning the development of syllabic consonants /r l/ in Czech, that is only sketched in the existing literature. The evidence is based on an automatic parser that identifies potential syllable-projecting segments according to sonority. The parser was applied to six verse texts from the 14th–16th centuries, which show a strong tendency towards octosyllabicity. The data provided by the parser newly reveal that the shift from non-syllabic to syllabic /r l/ is position-dependent: word-medial non-syllabic strings C(r/l)C change more rapidly than non-syllabic word-final ones C(r/l)#. This finding is in line with a cross-linguistic observation that non-syllabic C(r/l)C are marked, hence they are regularly syllabified prior to less marked C(r/l)#.

Syllabic Consonants in Historical Czech and How to Identify Them

Department of Czech Language, Faculty of Arts

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Syllabic Consonants in Historical Czech and How to Identify Them"}

The paper provides fine-grained evidence concerning the development of syllabic consonants /r l/ in Czech, that is only sketched in the existing literature....

Syllabic Consonants in Historical Czech and How to Identify Them

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 391 - 400

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2023-0055

Keywords
syllabic consonants, historical Czech, syllable markedness, Sonority Sequencing Principle

© 2023 Markéta Ziková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Syllabic Consonants in Historical Czech and How to Identify Them

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 391 - 400

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2023-0055

Keywordssyllabic consonants, historical Czech, syllable markedness, Sonority Sequencing Principle

© 2023 Markéta Ziková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
syllabic consonants, historical Czech, syllable markedness, Sonority Sequencing Principle