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Variation in Breton word stress: new speakers and the influence of French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Holly J. Kennard Open the ORCID record for Holly J. Kennard [Opens in a new window]
Holly J. Kennard*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
*
*E-mail: holly.kennard@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk.
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Abstract

This paper investigates stress patterns in Breton across speakers of different ages and with different linguistic backgrounds. Centuries of contact with French have led to French influence in Breton lexis, phonology and morphosyntax, and Breton's current status as an endangered minority language makes it vulnerable to further change. Additionally, younger ‘new speakers’ of Breton, who have acquired the language through Breton-medium education, are said to transfer features from French into their Breton. Analysis of stress usage shows that older, traditional speakers use stress largely as expected, while there is a greater degree of interspeaker variation among younger, new speakers. These data are used to form a metrical analysis of stress in Breton, taking into account lexical exceptions, loanwords and the variability of younger speakers. Rather than widespread transfer of French stress patterns into Breton, some younger speakers seem to be using two competing stress systems.

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Articles
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Phonology , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , August 2021 , pp. 363 - 399
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The fieldwork for this study was supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. I would like to thank the audiences at the 9th Celtic Linguistics Conference, the 25th Manchester Phonology Meeting, the 11th International Symposium on Bilingualism and the 15èmes Rencontres du Réseau Français de Phonologie, at which parts of this article were presented. Thanks are also due to Emily Darley for her help and advice in the revision of this article. I am very grateful to the Phonology editors and anonymous reviewers for their patience, careful and insightful comments, and helpful suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank the Breton speakers who participated in this study. All remaining errors are my own.

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