Connecting /t/ in Maltese numerals: synchrony and diachrony

1. 4th International Conference on Maltese Linguistics Université Lyon 2 17/06/2013 Connecting /t/ in Maltese numerals: synchrony and diachrony • Christopher Lucas SOAS, University of London • Michael Spagnol • Albert Gatt University of Malta

2. Maltese cardinal numerals 2–10 2

3. Outline • The synchronic distribution of the -t form numerals: • Existing claims and their inadequacy. • Production experiment to produce more accurate generalization. • Reconstructing the evolution of this distribution. 3

4. Previous literature • Two main types of claim: • -t is triggered by an initial consonant cluster in the following plural noun. • -t is triggered by an initial vowel in the following plural noun. • Not quite as contradictory as they may seem! • Both views tell part of the story. 4

5. Previous literature • Consonant cluster views: • Cremona (1938: 204–5): plurals that are CC-initial + monosylabic trigger -t (+ epenthetic /i/), e.g.: • ħabib ‘friend’, pl. ħbieb, 2 friends: zewġt iħbieb • belt ‘town’, pl. bliet, 8 towns: tmintibliet • fenek‘rabbit’, pl. fniek, 10 rabbits: • għaxart ifniek • But snin‘years’ is exceptional: għaxarsnin 5

6. Previous literature • Consonant cluster views: • Borg (1974): -t insertion, where licit, is always optional as one means of avoiding illicit consonant clusters, e.g.: • kelb‘dog’, pl. klieb, 7 dogs: sebatiklieb / seba’ klieb • Also: -t is ungrammatical before a (non- epenthetic) initial vowel, and with “sound” plurals, e.g.: • stampa‘picture’, pl. stampi, seba’ stampi 6

7. Previous literature • Initial vowel views: • Sutcliffe (1936: 188–9): -t co-occurs with a following vowel, whether epenthetic or not. • Aquilina (1965: 118): all V-initials, all monosyllabics, optional with CC-initial disyllabics. • Hoberman (2007: 277–8): before any Arabic-derived V-initial, e.g. erbataħwa‘4 siblings’, all monosyllabics, optional with CC-initial disyllabics. 7

8. Experiment • Our intuition: onset is the key factor, with number of syllables also contributing. • Different phonological properties of various numerals (mono-/disyllabic, C-final vs. V-final) perhaps also relevant. • Not feasible to properly test further potentially relevant variables (sound vs. broken plural, Arabic- vs. Romance-derived) in a single experiment. 8

9. Experiment design • Subjects: 35 students of the University of Malta (18 female, 17 male) + 5 older speakers (40+, 4 female, 1 male). • Test items: 1 of 7 numerals (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10) paired with a singular noun. • Fillers: a numeral (11–19) paired with a singular noun. • Task: say the phrase as you would in normal speech. • N.B.: 2–10 take a plural noun, 11+ a singular. • 3 + 6 excluded. 9

10. Experiment design 10

11. 12 qasba

12. 12 qasba 2 tifla 13 bandiera 7 artiklu 15 għalqa 10 larinġa 11 bejt 5 ħsieb 19 ballun 7 ħu/oħt 19 kutra 2 wild

13. Experiment design • 56 plurals were tested, divided equally into 8 categories: • CC-initial: Mono-, Di-, Polysyllabic • CV-initial: Mono-, Di-, Polysyllabic • V-initial: Di-, Polysyllabic • Subjects were split into 7 groups. Each group had a different combination of numeral and noun, e.g.: • Group 1: 2 tifla, 7 artiklu, 8 but • Group 2: 4 tifla, 8 artiklu, 9 but • Group 3: 5 tifla, 9 artiklu, 10 but etc. 13

14. Test nouns

15. Responses with -t by onset and no. of syllables

16. Results for young (and older) speakers

17. Responses with -t by onset and no. of syllables, excluding erwieħ, jiem and snin

18. Summary of results • Data were analysed using a linear mixed effects model, with random intercept and slope for test subjects, but not test items. • Main effect of onset type (z=-9.79, p<0.001) and no. of syllables (z=-9.96, p<0.001). • But no main effect of numeral choice. • Interaction between onset and syllables (z=2.54, p=0.01). No pairwise interactions involving numeral choice, but an interaction between all three conditions (z=2.5, p=0.01). 18

19. Summary of results • Plurals with CV- onsets (other than jiem‘days’) are extremely hostile to -t, regardless of no. of syllables, broken vs. sound etc. 19

20. Summary of results • With CC- onsets there is a strong interaction with no. of syllables: monosyllables (all broken plurals) strongly favour -t; disyllabic plurals are reasonably favourable when broken, apparently very hostile when sound; polysyllabic plurals (all sound) are very hostile. 20

21. Summary of results • V- onsets are somewhat favourable when disyllabic, less so when polysyllabic. Unclear whether sound vs. broken plural or no. of syllables (or both) is relevant here. 21

22. Summary of results • The interaction of onset, no. of syllables and numeral choice arises only with V-initial disyllabics, where frequency and phonology of word-final segment of the numeral seem to be relevant: 22

23. Questions arising • Is the apparent inter-speaker variation (partially) a reflection of optionality for individual speakers? • What kinds of rules do children acquire to produce these generalizations? • How did this system evolve from its early spoken Arabic ancestor? 23

24. Questions arising • Is the apparent inter-speaker variation (partially) a reflection of optionality for individual speakers? • Yes. Of the 7 subjects we retested (1 from each group), none were consistent in their use of -t. • Across all test items, consistency of -t insertion ranged from 50%–84% (for the least/most consistent subjects). 24

25. Optionality of -t for individual speakers 25

26. Acquisition • Acquirers must posit something like the following rules: • numerals followed by CV- onsets obligatorily lack -t. • numerals followed by sound plurals with CC- (and CV-) onsets obligatorily lack -t. • CC- broken plurals at least optionally trigger -t. • V- plurals (of all types?)optionally trigger -t. 26

27. Frequency • Acquirers are clearly sensitive to the token frequency of nouns and numeral + noun strings. • Apparent effect of no. of syllables could perhaps be explained as an epiphenomenon of frequency and/or as parasitic on the fact that polysyllabicity is associated with sound plurals. • This will be investigated further with a planned corpus study and a second experiment focussed on distinguishing the role of no. of syllables vs. sound/broken plural. 27

28. Exceptions • Why treat results for erwieħ‘souls’, jiem‘days’ and snin‘years’ as discountable exceptions? • Erwieħ: etymologically (perhaps synchronically) erwieħis CC- monosyllabic. • Vowel epenthesis occurs whenever a word-initial sonorant + consonant cluster follows something other than a vowel. • Usually this is /i/, e.g. blalsien‘without a tongue’ vs. ilsien, but before /r/ it is /e/, e.g. rġajt‘I redid’ > erġajt • But epenthetic /e/ is usually retained in all contexts (i.e. is no longer epenthetic). 28

29. Evolution • Classical Arabic (like Akkadian and Canaanite) exhibits gender polarity in numeral agreement from 3–10, e.g. yawmun(m.) ‘day’ > xamsatu(f.)ʾayyāmin‘5 days’. • In many contemporary Arabic dialects this construction has been radically refunctionalized: • Independent numerals are etymologically feminine, e.g. xamsa ‘five’. • Determiner numerals are (usually) etymologically masculine, e.g. xamassinīn‘5 years’, but a reflex of tāʾmarbūṭareappears with high-frequency V-initial plurals, e.g. xamas-t-iyyām‘5 days’. 29

30. Evolution • Assuming Maltese started from this kind of system, the following evolution seems likely: • Stage I: only VCCV(V)C plurals take -t, e.g. aħbāb‘friends’. • Stage IIa: VCCVVC and CVCVVC collapse into CCVVC, e.g. aħbāb‘friends’ > ħbieb, kilāb‘dogs’ > klieb. • VCCiCa > VCCCa, e.g. ilsna‘tongues’ (< alsina) • Stage IIb: among CCVVC plurals, only originally V-initial ones take -t. Initial V preserved after -t. 30

31. Evolution • Assuming Maltese started from this kind of system, the following evolution seems likely: • Stage IIb: among CCVVC plurals, only originally V-initial ones take -t. Initial V preserved after -t. • Stage IVa: all CC-initial broken plurals take -t, obligatoriness increases with frequency. • Stage IVb: all V-initial plurals take -t, obligatoriness increases with frequency. • Stage IIc: initial V after -t reanalysed as epenthetic, except for ilsnaetc. • Stage III: -t+ epenthetic V generalized to all CCVVC plurals. • Present-day: CC- broken plurals identified as prototypical context for -t, V-initial contexts perhaps on the way out? • Stage IVa: all CC-initial broken plurals take -t, obligatoriness increases with frequency. • Stage IVb: all V-initial plurals take -t, obligatoriness increases with frequency. 31

32. Jiemand snin • High token frequency (of lexical items, constructions) is commonly associated with irregularity (Bybee 2003). • This is because high-frequency items are resistant to analogical (but not phonological) change. • Jiem‘days’ < ayyām, i.e. a -t-inserting pattern. It is CV-initial but retains its V-type morphosyntax due to v. high frequency. • Snin‘years’ < sinīn, i.e. a -t-resistant pattern. It is CC-initial but retains its CV-type morphosyntax due to v. high frequency. Also not a broken plural! 32

33. Conclusion • Despite having no clear function, and often being optional, the Maltese numeral -t morpheme has survived for 1000+ years and expanded its range to include both V- and CC-initial following plural nouns. • This serves as a reminder that functional pressures are not the only drivers of linguistic change. • At least as important is the need for acquirers to establish generalizations which are consistent with their input, but also transcend it, allowing them to produce novel utterances. • This is true of all aspects of the input, even those as functionally redundant as Maltese numeral -t. 33

34. References Aquilina, Joseph. 1965. Teach Yourself Maltese. London: The English Universities Press. Borg, Alexander. 1974. Maltese Numerals. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 124, 291–305. Bybee, Joan L. 2003. Mechanisms of change in grammaticalization: The role of frequency. In Richard D. Janda & Brian D. Joseph (eds.), Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 602–23. Oxford: Blackwell. Cassar, Carmel. 2000. A Concise History of Malta. Msida: Mireva. Cremona, Antonino. 1938. Tagħlimfuqil-KitbaMaltija. It-TieniKtieb. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fabri, Ray. 1994. The syntax of numerals in Maltese. In Joseph M. Brincat (ed.), Languages of the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the Conference held in Malta, 26–29 September 1991, 228–39. Msida: University of Malta. Hoberman, Robert D. 2007. Maltese morphology. In Alan S. Kaye (ed.), Morphologies of Asia and Africa, 257–81. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. Sutcliffe, Edmund. 1936. A Grammar of the Maltese Language, with Chrestomathy and Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2012. Numerals. In Lutz Edzard & Rudolf de Jong (eds.) Encyclopeida of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online. Brill Online. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-arabic-language-and-linguistics/numerals-COM_vol3_0238 34