Autosegmental phonology is the name of a framework of phonological analysis proposed by John Goldsmith in his PhD thesis in 1976 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). John Goldsmith introduced autosegmental phonology in 1976. ... “MIT” redirects here. ...

As a theory of phonological representation, autosegmental phonology developed a formal account of ideas that had been sketched in earlier work by several linguists, notably Bernard Bloch (1948), Charles Hockett (1955) and J. R. Firth (1948). On such a view, phonological representations consist of more than one linear sequence of segments; each linear sequence constitutes a separate tier. The co-registration of elements (or autosegments) on one tier with those on another is represented by association lines. There is a close relationship between analysis of segments into distinctive features and an autosegmental analysis; each feature in a language appears on exactly one tier. The working hypothesis of autosegmental analysis is that a large part of phonological generalizations can be interpreted as a restructuring or reorganization of the autosegments in a representation. Clear examples of the usefulness of autosegmental analysis came in early work from the detailed study of African tone languages, as well as the study of vowel and nasal harmony systems. A few years later, John McCarthy proposed an important development by showing that the vocalism and consonantism of Arabic could be analyzed autosegmentally. Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Bernard Bloch, B.A., M.A., Ph. ... John Rupert Firth (1890, Keighley, Yorkshire – 1960), commonly known as J. R. Firth, was an English linguist. ... In linguistics, distinctive features are the elements which distinguish one phoneme or allophone from one another. ... In linguistics, distinctive features are the descriptive quality by which sounds are distinguished from one another. ... John McCarthy may be: Government: John McCarthy (1857–1943), American politician Science: John McCarthy (born 1927), American computer scientist John McCarthy (born 1953), American phonologist Sports: John McCarthy, Mixed martial arts referee Johnny McCarthy, a NBA player Johnny McCarthy, a MLB first baseman John McCarthy, a former Australian rules footballer... Arabic redirects here. ...

As a theory of the dynamic of phonological representations, autosegmental phonology includes a Well-formedness Condition on association lines (each element on one tier that "may" be associated to an element on another tier "must" be associated to such an element, and association lines do not cross) plus an instruction as to what to do in case of a violation of the Well-formedness Condition: add or delete the minimum number of association lines in order to maximally satisfy it. Many of the most interesting predictions of the autosegmental model derive from the automatic effects of the Well-formedness Condition and their independence of language-particular rules.

In the first decade of the development of the theory, G. N. Clements developed a number of influential aspects of the theory involving harmonic processes, especially vowel harmony and nasal harmony, and John McCarthy generalized the theory to deal with the conjugational system of classical Arabic, on the basis of an autosegmental account of vowel and consonant slots on a central timing tier (see also nonconcatenative morphology). Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Nonconcatenative morphology is an account of morphology developed in the 1980s by J. J. McCarthy and inspired by Autosegmental phonology. ...

References

• Bloch, Bernard, 1948. A set of postulates for phonemic analysis. Language 24.
• Clements, G. N. 1976. Vowel harmony in nonlinear generative phonology: an autosegmental model. Indiana University Linguistics Club.
• Firth, J.R. 1948. "Sounds and Prosodies" Transactions of the Philological Society, pp 127-52.
• Goldsmith, John. 1990. Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Basil Blackwell.
• Hockett, Charles. 1955. A manual of phonology. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics 11.
• McCarthy, John. 1981. A prosodic theory of non-concatenative morphology. Linguistic Inquiry 12(3): 373-418.
• Ogden, R. and Local,J. K. , 1994 Disentangling Autosegments from Prosodies: A Note on the Misrepresentation of a Research Tradition in Phonology. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ501527&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ501527

External links

• "The Aims of Autosegmental Phonology" by John Goldsmith
• Autosegmental analysis of intonation (Lexicon of Linguistics)
• Autosegmental phonology (Doctoral dissertation by John Goldsmith)
• What is autosegmental phonology? (SIL)