Finnish Consonant Gradation @cite{karlsson-2017} #
@cite{hayes-2009}
Consonant gradation is a morphophonological alternation affecting stops at morpheme-internal syllable boundaries in Finnish (@cite{karlsson-2017}, Chs. 4–5). The strong grade appears in open syllables; the weak grade appears in closed syllables (i.e., before a coda consonant).
Quantitative gradation #
Geminate stops shorten:
- pp → p, tt → t, kk → k
Qualitative gradation #
Single stops weaken:
- p → v, t → d, k → ∅ (deletion)
- mp → mm, nk → ng, lt → ll, rt → rr (assimilatory weakening)
Formalization #
We model the quantitative and qualitative rules as SPE PhonRules. The
conditioning environment — closed vs. open syllable — is approximated by
right context: a following consonant signals a closed syllable.
Voiceless bilabial stop /p/: [−cont, −voice, +labial, −coronal, −dorsal].
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Voiceless alveolar stop /t/: [−cont, −voice, +coronal, +anterior].
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Voiceless velar stop /k/: [−cont, −voice, +dorsal, −labial, −coronal].
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Voiced labial continuant /v/: [+cont, +voice, +labial].
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Voiced alveolar stop /d/: [−cont, +voice, +coronal, +anterior].
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A consonant: [+cons, −syll] (natural class for right context).
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Quantitative pp → p: geminate voiceless bilabial shortens before a consonant. Modeled as: the second /p/ of a geminate is deleted when followed by a consonant (closed syllable).
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Quantitative tt → t: geminate voiceless alveolar shortens.
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Quantitative kk → k: geminate voiceless velar shortens.
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Qualitative p → v: single voiceless bilabial becomes a voiced labial continuant before a consonant.
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Qualitative t → d: single voiceless alveolar becomes voiced before a consonant.
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Qualitative k → ∅: single voiceless velar deletes before a consonant.
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Classification of a gradation rule: quantitative (geminate shortening) or qualitative (quality change or deletion).
- quantitative : GradationType
- qualitative : GradationType
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A consonant gradation pair: strong and weak grades with classification.
- strong : String
- weak : String
- gradationType : GradationType
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- Fragments.Finnish.ConsonantGradation.instBEqGradationPair.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false
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The six principal gradation patterns (Karlsson §4.1).
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There are exactly 3 quantitative gradation pairs.
There are exactly 3 qualitative gradation pairs.
All quantitative pairs involve geminate shortening (strong form is longer than weak form by exactly 1 character).
The k → ∅ qualitative alternation is the only deletion (empty weak grade).
p → v rule changes voiceless to voiced + continuant.
k → ∅ rule deletes.