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The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay

It is generally observed that when monosyllabic stems undergo the process of affixation with verbal prefixes /mN-/ and /di-/ in Malay, two phonological alternations surface in the output forms, namely vowel lengthening (i.e. /di-pam/  [dipam] „to pump (passive)‟), and schwa epenthesis (i.e. /mN-...

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Main Authors: Zaharani Ahmad,, Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Journal of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2011
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/1/zaharani011.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/
http://www.ukm.my/e-bangi
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spelling my-ukm.journal.26452016-12-14T06:32:13Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/ The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay Zaharani Ahmad, Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin, It is generally observed that when monosyllabic stems undergo the process of affixation with verbal prefixes /mN-/ and /di-/ in Malay, two phonological alternations surface in the output forms, namely vowel lengthening (i.e. /di-pam/  [dipam] „to pump (passive)‟), and schwa epenthesis (i.e. /mN-pam/  [mpam] „to pump (active)‟). Unlike the later, the former has not been well examined and accounted for in the previous studies, and therefore the analyses missed some important generalizations about the phonology of the so-called monosyllabic stems in Malay. Previous studies suggested that the so-called monosyllabic stems are lexically disyllabic with an initial empty V-slot at the CV tier. This representation is in agreement with the basic prosodic structure of the words in the language which is normally disyllabic. This empty V-slot triggers the application of vowel lengthening and schwa epenthesis rules, and simultaneously blocks the application of visibly active rules such as nasal assimilation, nasal deletion and nasal substitution. However, based on additional data generated from DBP corpus, it is apparent that there are monosyllabic stems that do not undergo schwa epenthesis as predicted by the rule (i.e. /mN-gam/  [mgam] „to glue‟. This demonstrates that the previous analysis is inadequate and over generalized. The present study concurs that the so-called monosyllabic stems are lexically disyllabic but with an initial empty mora. In the process of syllabification, the empty mora in the rhyme can be linked either with a preceding vowel, an epenthetic schwa or a homorganic nasal. Journal of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2011 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/1/zaharani011.pdf Zaharani Ahmad, and Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin, (2011) The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay. e-BANGI: Jurnal Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, 6 (1). pp. 63-76. ISSN 1823-884x http://www.ukm.my/e-bangi
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description It is generally observed that when monosyllabic stems undergo the process of affixation with verbal prefixes /mN-/ and /di-/ in Malay, two phonological alternations surface in the output forms, namely vowel lengthening (i.e. /di-pam/  [dipam] „to pump (passive)‟), and schwa epenthesis (i.e. /mN-pam/  [mpam] „to pump (active)‟). Unlike the later, the former has not been well examined and accounted for in the previous studies, and therefore the analyses missed some important generalizations about the phonology of the so-called monosyllabic stems in Malay. Previous studies suggested that the so-called monosyllabic stems are lexically disyllabic with an initial empty V-slot at the CV tier. This representation is in agreement with the basic prosodic structure of the words in the language which is normally disyllabic. This empty V-slot triggers the application of vowel lengthening and schwa epenthesis rules, and simultaneously blocks the application of visibly active rules such as nasal assimilation, nasal deletion and nasal substitution. However, based on additional data generated from DBP corpus, it is apparent that there are monosyllabic stems that do not undergo schwa epenthesis as predicted by the rule (i.e. /mN-gam/  [mgam] „to glue‟. This demonstrates that the previous analysis is inadequate and over generalized. The present study concurs that the so-called monosyllabic stems are lexically disyllabic but with an initial empty mora. In the process of syllabification, the empty mora in the rhyme can be linked either with a preceding vowel, an epenthetic schwa or a homorganic nasal.
format Article
author Zaharani Ahmad,
Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin,
spellingShingle Zaharani Ahmad,
Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin,
The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
author_facet Zaharani Ahmad,
Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin,
author_sort Zaharani Ahmad,
title The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
title_short The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
title_full The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
title_fullStr The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
title_full_unstemmed The phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in Malay
title_sort phonology of words with monosyllabic stems in malay
publisher Journal of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2011
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/1/zaharani011.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2645/
http://www.ukm.my/e-bangi
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score 13.211869

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