Noam Faust (SFL)

Noam Faust (SFL)
Get that into your head: Tigre vowel harmonies as templatic
 

Abstract - Kaye (2001) defines vocalic expressions as "ordered pair". In this talk, I pursue this view to its logical conclusions. Vocalic expressions are templatic, i.e. they consist of positions that are independent of the elements that occupy them. It follows that the same element may be inserted in both positions, a possibility not considered by Kaye. I illustrate this view in an analysis of Tigre vowel harmonies, whereby a short low vowel /ə/ becomes a lower [a] whenever it preceds a long low vowel /aː/ or a lowering consonant (pharyngeal or ejective). To account for the differences between consonant- and vowel-induced harmony  -  the latter is blocked by non-low vowels, the former isn't  -  I further develop an analysis of syllabic inheritance of the heads of expression, building on a previous analysis of the same phenomenon in Lowenstamm & Prunet (1985).