{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22288"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22288","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The diphthongs of Spanish: Stress, syllabification, and alternations","abstract":"The intricate system of Spanish diphthongs has generated much discussion in Spanish phonology as well as in the development of numerous theories of syllable structure. In this dissertation, it is my claim that many of the difficulties posed by the diphthongs of Spanish can be dispensed with if we assume that they are derived structures rather than primitive syllable types. Falling diphthongs are derived prior to initial stress assignment from two adjacent syllable nuclei, where the second nucleus is (+high). Rising diphthongs are created subsequent to the assignment of stress from a sequence of (+high) vowel followed by an onsetless syllable. Surface differences in the syllabicity of words like Mar(y) o and Maria then, are encoded underlying in terms of stress, rather than in terms of a feature, or a structural property of high vowels. Such a proposal reduces the inventory of Spanish syllable types and allows us to eliminate the feature (syllabic). The Sonority Principle and the two-mora limit per syllable determine syllabic wellformedness. This makes it possible to uphold a maximally simple model of the syllable, with no inner structure.","abstract_html":"The intricate system of Spanish diphthongs has generated much discussion in Spanish phonology as well as in the development of numerous theories of syllable structure. In this dissertation, it is my claim that many of the difficulties posed by the diphthongs of Spanish can be dispensed with if we assume that they are derived structures rather than primitive syllable types. Falling diphthongs are derived prior to initial stress assignment from two adjacent syllable nuclei, where the second nucleus is (+high). Rising diphthongs are created subsequent to the assignment of stress from a sequence of (+high) vowel followed by an onsetless syllable. Surface differences in the syllabicity of words like Mar(y) o and Maria then, are encoded underlying in terms of stress, rather than in terms of a feature, or a structural property of high vowels. Such a proposal reduces the inventory of Spanish syllable types and allows us to eliminate the feature (syllabic). The Sonority Principle and the two-mora limit per syllable determine syllabic wellformedness. This makes it possible to uphold a maximally simple model of the syllable, with no inner structure.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Carreira, Maria Margarita"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Linguistics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kenstowicz, Michael J."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T13:35:06Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T13:35:06Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:19Z","subjects":["Language, Linguistics","Language, Modern"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1990 Carreira, Maria Margarita"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9026151","(UMI)AAI9026151"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9026151","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9026151","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22288","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kenstowicz, Michael J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Carreira, Maria Margarita"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T13:35:06Z","10000-01-01","1990"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Linguistics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Language, Linguistics","Language, Modern"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1990 Carreira, Maria Margarita"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9026151","(UMI)AAI9026151","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22288"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The intricate system of Spanish diphthongs has generated much discussion in Spanish phonology as well as in the development of numerous theories of syllable structure. In this dissertation, it is my claim that many of the difficulties posed by the diphthongs of Spanish can be dispensed with if we assume that they are derived structures rather than primitive syllable types. Falling diphthongs are derived prior to initial stress assignment from two adjacent syllable nuclei, where the second nucleus is (+high). Rising diphthongs are created subsequent to the assignment of stress from a sequence of (+high) vowel followed by an onsetless syllable. Surface differences in the syllabicity of words like Mar(y) o and Maria then, are encoded underlying in terms of stress, rather than in terms of a feature, or a structural property of high vowels. Such a proposal reduces the inventory of Spanish syllable types and allows us to eliminate the feature (syllabic). The Sonority Principle and the two-mora limit per syllable determine syllabic wellformedness. This makes it possible to uphold a maximally simple model of the syllable, with no inner structure.","This analysis of diphthongs also leads to a more explanatory account of the alternating diphthongs of Spanish ( (ye) $\\sim$ (e) and (o) $\\sim$ (we)). It is my claim that the monophthongal forms of the diphthongs are derived from the intermediate monomoraic structures: $\\{$ye$\\}$ and $\\{$wo$\\}$. These diphthongs monophthongize in unstressed environments as a result of a ban against shared feature matrices in monomoraic diphthongs that are in a metrically weak position. Overall, the analyses presented uphold a minimally marked model of Spanish syllable structure.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:35:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9026151.pdf: 7437473 bytes, checksum: e9653f7259baf9f17d63dcafc5ac3b00 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1990","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:56:36Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:26:28-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The diphthongs of Spanish: Stress, syllabification, and alternations"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kenstowicz, Michael J."],"dc:creator":["Carreira, Maria Margarita"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T13:35:06Z","10000-01-01","1990"],"dc:description":["The intricate system of Spanish diphthongs has generated much discussion in Spanish phonology as well as in the development of numerous theories of syllable structure. In this dissertation, it is my claim that many of the difficulties posed by the diphthongs of Spanish can be dispensed with if we assume that they are derived structures rather than primitive syllable types. Falling diphthongs are derived prior to initial stress assignment from two adjacent syllable nuclei, where the second nucleus is (+high). Rising diphthongs are created subsequent to the assignment of stress from a sequence of (+high) vowel followed by an onsetless syllable. Surface differences in the syllabicity of words like Mar(y) o and Maria then, are encoded underlying in terms of stress, rather than in terms of a feature, or a structural property of high vowels. Such a proposal reduces the inventory of Spanish syllable types and allows us to eliminate the feature (syllabic). The Sonority Principle and the two-mora limit per syllable determine syllabic wellformedness. This makes it possible to uphold a maximally simple model of the syllable, with no inner structure.","This analysis of diphthongs also leads to a more explanatory account of the alternating diphthongs of Spanish ( (ye) $\\sim$ (e) and (o) $\\sim$ (we)). It is my claim that the monophthongal forms of the diphthongs are derived from the intermediate monomoraic structures: $\\{$ye$\\}$ and $\\{$wo$\\}$. These diphthongs monophthongize in unstressed environments as a result of a ban against shared feature matrices in monomoraic diphthongs that are in a metrically weak position. Overall, the analyses presented uphold a minimally marked model of Spanish syllable structure.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:35:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9026151.pdf: 7437473 bytes, checksum: e9653f7259baf9f17d63dcafc5ac3b00 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1990","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:56:36Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:26:28-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"],"dc:identifier":["AAI9026151","(UMI)AAI9026151","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22288"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1990 Carreira, Maria Margarita"],"dc:subject":["Language, Linguistics","Language, Modern"],"dc:title":["The diphthongs of Spanish: Stress, syllabification, and alternations"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Linguistics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:19Z"}