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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 44:3 (2020) ► pp.659–699

The expression of vulgarity, force, severity and size

Phonaesthemic alternations in Reta and in other languages

ORCID logo | Aarhus Universitet
| Aarhus Universitet
Phonaesthemes are a common phenomenon, but they are generally not in paradigmatic opposition like morphemes are (Svantesson 2017: 6). Reta, however, has a phonaesthemic contrast /l/~/r/, where /r/-colouring of neutral base words signifies an increase in vulgarity, intensity, size or severity (e.g. ɓela ‘bad’ vs. ɓera ‘terrible’, -ool ‘penis’ vs. -oor ‘cock’). This paper describes this phenomenon in detail, and provides a discussion as to whether it is best classified as morphological, phonaesthemic, or otherwise. We argue that, although some of the cross-linguistic criteria for phonaesthesia exclude phonaesthemic /r/ from being classified as such, it is not straightforwardly classified as either phonological or morphological. Using Kwon & Round’s (2015) criteria for phonaesthesia and derivational morphology, we compare Reta phonaesthemic alternations to similar phenomena in other languages. We argue that such alternations differ fundamentally from both non-alternating phonaesthemes and morphology, and are best construed as a distinct cross-linguistic category.
Keywords: phonaesthemes, sound symbolism, alternation, consonant mutation, Timor-Alor-Pantar languages, Reta, Blagar, derivational morphology, augmentative, foreigner speech, markedness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A brief overview of Reta
  • 3.Phonaesthemic alternations in Reta
    • 3.1Form and function
    • 3.2Phonaesthemic /r/ outside of alternations
  • 4.A tentative explanation for phonaesthemic alternations in Reta
  • 5.Is it phonology, morphology, both, or neither?
    • 5.1Morphology
    • 5.2Phonaesthesia
    • 5.3Phonology
  • 6.Phonaesthemic alternations are not just phonaesthemes
    • 6.1A cross-linguistic overview of phonaesthemic consonant alternations
    • 6.2A proposal for the classification of phonaesthemic alternations
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19073.wil
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