The metathesis in the dialect of Suelli (CA)

A descriptive analysis of the rhotic consonant

Abstract

The paper aims at providing phonetic grounds to support the idea of Campidanese metathetic aberrant clusters (mr, sr, tsr, tʃr) as branching onsets. A phonological interpretation is presented, followed by the phonetic analysis of the rhotic consonant in marked clusters recurring in the dialect of Suelli (Campidanese Sardinian group). In spite of their intrinsic articulatory complexity, such clusters do not show acoustic differences as compared to cross-linguistically unmarked consonant clusters. Our analysis is focused on the rhotic consonant: its phonetic behaviour in such clusters is compared to that of /r/ in unmarked clusters and intervocalic environment. In particular, we looked for patterns analogous to those found in literature concerning marked clusters of the Campidanese typology. The analysis is based on fieldwork data and has showed that no particular acoustic pattern is at work when aberrant clusters are concerned. It will be claimed that the cross-linguistically systematic presence of a vowel portion preceding taps in Cr clusters and the high number of rhotic variants do not have phonological relevance in determining the syllabic status of Campidanese aberrant clusters.