morphophonology back to home page
See functional morphosyntax for my broader views about morphosyntax. Within word-level morphophonology proper, I have worked extensively on stem ablaut (apophony) in Arabic and Berber. Much of the Tamashek grammar is devoted to multilevel ablaut patterns. In addition to the works listed below, ablaut is pervasive in my other works on Moroccan Arabic. In addition, tonal ablaut is a major topic in my grammars of West African languages, especially Bangime.
Sound-symbolic diminutive ablaut features prominently throughout the Moroccan Arabic work. It is present but limited to ‘small’ and one or two related words in Nunggubuyu (Australia). A kind of vocalic sound-symbolism also occurs in Dogon verbs and expressive adverbials. Sound symbolism is central to my understanding of gender-associated vocalic variation and ongoing shifts observed by sociolinguists in English and Arabic.
books
1987 Ablaut and ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic dialect. Albany: State University of New York Press. Pp. 355.
ISBN 0-88706-511-2 (hardb.), 0-88706-512-0 (paperb.)
2005c A grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali). Mouton de Gruyter (Mouton Grammar Series). Pp. 745.
ISBN: 978-3-11-090958-6
articles
2007a Stretching ablaut: morphological adaptation of new *CCu and *CCi stems in Moroccan Arabic. In: Mustafa Mughazy (ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XX, pp. 3-24. Philadelphia: Benjamins.
2003 Arabic derivational ablaut, processing strategies, and consonantal 'roots'. In: Joseph Shimron (ed.), Language processing and language acquisition in a root-based morphology, 115-129. Amsterdam/New York: Benjamins.
*1998b (Matthew Gordon & J. Heath) Sex, sound symbolism, and sociolinguistics, Current Anthropology 39:421-49.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/204758
[last update Nov 2017]