Segmental Environments of Spanish Diphthongization

Spanish diphthongization is a well-known example of an exceptionful phonological alternation. Although many forms do exhibit an alternation (e.g. [sentámos] ~ [sjénto] ‘we/I sit’, [kontámos] ~ [kwénto] ‘we/I count’), many others do not (e.g. [rentámos] ~ [rénto] ‘we/I rent’, [montámos] ~ [mónto] ‘we/I mount’). Previous accounts of the alternation have largely accepted this unpredictability at face value, focusing on setting up appropriate lexical representations to distinguish alternating from non-alternating roots. Our interest is in whether Spanish speakers go beyond this, internalizing detailed knowledge of the ways in which diphthongization is conditioned by segmental environments. We employed a machine-implemented algorithm to search a database of 1698 mid-vowel verbs. The algorithm yielded a large stochastic grammar, specifying the degree to which diphthongization is favored or disfavored in particular segmental contexts. We used this grammar to make predictions about the well-formedness of diphthongization in novel roots. The predictions were then checked in a nonce probe experiment with 96 native speaker consultants. We found that the consultants’ intuitions (both in volunteered forms and in acceptability ratings) were significantly correlated with the predictions of the algorithmically learned grammar. Our conclusion is that Spanish speakers can indeed use detailed segmental environments to help predict diphthongization. We discuss this conclusion in light of various models of linguistic irregularity. Segmental Environments of Spanish Diphthongization p. 2 Segmental Environments of Spanish Diphthongization