On the Syllable Structure of English Pidgins and Creoles.

Avram, Andrei A (2004) On the Syllable Structure of English Pidgins and Creoles. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis is an optimality-theoretic investigation of syllable restructuring in the Atlantic and Pacific English-lexicon pidgins and creoles, both in their earlier stages and in the modem varieties. The theoretical framework and the methodology are presented in chapter 2. The next three chapters examine the adjustments that occur in the English pidgins and creoles in two syllabic positions: the onset and the coda. Thus, chapter 3 looks into the strategies used to resolve illicit /s/-initial onset clusters. Chapter 4 investigates the fate of obstruent + sonorant onset clusters, to the exclusion of /s/-initial ones. The clusters at issue are of two types: obstruent + glide, and obstruent + liquid. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of obstruent + liquid onset clusters in the creoles of Surinam, a matter of some dispute in the literature. Syllable restructuring in coda position is discussed in chapter 5, in which reflexes of etyma with both complex and simple codas are analyzed. The last chapter places the findings in the wider context of their implications for phonological theory and for the study of language contacts, as well as of the relevance of optimality theory to the study of syllable restructuring in the English pidgins and creoles. The issues discussed include the role of markedness, the relation between constraints on syllable structure in the English pidgins and creoles and in their respective substrate languages, syllable restructuring in the Atlantic Dutch and French creoles, and a comparison of syllable restructuring in first and second language phonology, in loanword phonology, and in the English pidgins and creoles.