The diphthongs of Spanish: Stress, syllabification, and alternations
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.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign