Spanish: verbal morphology and phonology

[kite_head]

1. What makes the nosotros form so special? For example, in the imperfect, it always has an accent. There are also the so-called "boot verbs" because the nosotros form is, well, different (i.e. it does not observe stem changes), and by excluding it, the other 5 forms form, well,a boot. How did this form evolve to be so unique

Comments

[emperor_spock]

To 2: ves - viste, traes - trajiste. :) Similarity of these endings seems more like a coincidence, especially since their respective forms in Latin are pretty different: for 'terminar' (termināre) it is 'terminas' (terminās) and 'terminaste' (termināvistī).

[dorsetgirl]

(5) "samon" and "amond"

I get that where you live people don't pronounce the "l", but are you saying that the "a" is pronounced the same in both words?

there are segments of the population that do pronounce the "l"

It's possible that you're only asking for responses from Spanish-exposed native English speakers in Central Valley of California, in which case ignore this:

I'm in Southern England, and "standard" pronunciation is "sammon" and "ah-mnd". I use "sammon", but for almond I say "al-mnd" which I suspect might be part of my rhotic accent, because we have a greater tendency to pronounce the letters that are there.

[kite_head]

yes, where I am from the "a" in salmon and almond generally has the same quality, however I have noticed when people debate about what to call the nut (which happens a bit more frequently than you'd expect!) they do tend to emphasize the "a" and do make it that "ah" that you indicated. so, it depends. but in day-to-day speech, "ammond."

[bolboreta]

Question number one amuses me. It's not that special, it goes with "vosotros" as well.

[kite_head]

It amuses me as well. :-) I have had very limited exposure to vosotros, but I will definitely look into it.

[aindreas]

For what it's worth, vosotros was definitely not taught at my high school in the northwestern US. From what I've heard and experienced elsewhere in the country, it's taught at schools and universities if the teacher is Spanish or learned the language in Spain. Even still, a subsequent teacher at my school studied in Spain, used vosotros in his own speech, but did not require that the students memorize or use its forms.

I have no problem with it being this way in high school. If students are made aware of its existence, and it's mentioned in passing from time to time, I find that to be enough.

[muckefuck]

If you're interested in the development of Spanish verbal morphology, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Ralph Penny's History of the Spanish language. Readable, comprehensive--all your questions about verb conjugations will be answered, plus more you didn't know you had.

As for question (5), the term you're looking for is hypercorrection. You're interested in a subset of hypercorrection called spelling pronunciation. Other common examples would be saying the t in often or the l in falcon.

[kite_head]

Thank you! I read A Brief History of the Spanish Language by David Pharies and enjoyed it, and it did mention Penny's book. I will definitely look into it.

Also, thanks for the heads up on hypercorrection. Are there any good articles or books on that or related issues?

I really appreciate your advice; this community has always been excellent and very helpful, but I count you as the gold standard. Thanks again.

[muckefuck]

Offhand, I can't think of any books specifically on hypercorrection. It's usually examined in a particular context. For instance, the English phoneticist Wells discusses it as a feature of "Near RP", the name he gives for a variety of Received Pronunciation typically adopted by speakers as adults (who thus learn it imperfectly, generalising certain phonological rules into environments they shouldn't). It crops up in discussions of language acquisition in general.

[zedille]

Thank you for the book recommendation! I've started reading it and you're right, it has everything I ever wanted to know.