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Stress-Dependent Harmony in Asturian and Harmony In Situ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Joan Mascaró and
Francesc Torres-Tamarit
Joan Mascaró*
Affiliation:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Francesc Torres-Tamarit*
Affiliation:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
*
Departament de Filologia Catalana, Facultat de Lletres, Edifici B, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain, [joan.mascaro@uab.cat]
[francescjosep.torres@gmail.com]
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Abstract

In many cases of stress-dependent harmony the trigger is associated with a morpheme. We examine two instances of morphemic harmony where the triggering morpheme is mixed, that is, it consists of segmental material and floating features. The floating features cause stepwise raising of the stressed vowel, /a/ → [e], and /e/ → [i], /o/ → [u]. We examine in particular Felechosa Asturian, where the triggering masculine singular count morpheme usually has the exponent /-o/ and the floating features [+high] and [–low]. When the stressed vowel is mid, /-o/ raises it to high (/negɾ-o/ → [‘niƔɾ-o]). When the stressed vowel is /a/, the suffix raises this vowel to [e] as predicted, but at the same time the triggering morph /-o/ raises to [u] (/blank-o/ → [‘bleŋk-u]). This phenomenon, which we call harmony in situ, derives from the fact that, because raising is stepwise, one of the floating features cannot link to the stressed vowel, and thus it has to be realized on the trigger itself. Felechosa Asturian is compared to Ḷḷena Asturian, which does not present harmony in situ, and an optimality-theoretic analysis is provided.

Keywords

Asturianstress-dependent harmonymetaphonyfloating featuresharmony in situ

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 98 , Issue 4 , December 2022, pp. 683 - 715
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

*

We are very grateful to Eulàlia Bonet, editors Andries Coetzee and Anne-Michelle Tessier, and three anonymous referees for very useful comments and recommendations. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, grant PID2020-113971GB-C22.

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