This is the most comprehensive account of Catalan phonology ever published. Approaching the subject a pragmatic version of orthodox Optimality Theory it describes the Spanish and French dialects of Catalan and the social and stylistic variations within them. This is likely to be the standard account of its subject for many years.

This is the most comprehensive account of Catalan phonology ever published. Catalan is a Romance language, occupying a position somewhere between French, Spanish, and Italian. It is the first language of six and a half million people in the northeastern Spain and of the peoples of Andorra, French Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and a small region of Sardinia. Dr Wheeler describes Barcelona pronunciation and the major varieties of western Catalonia, Valencia, and Majorca, and considers social and stylistic variation. The author's approach is through a clear, pragmatic version of orthodox Optimality Theory and is informed by close attention to articulatory phonetics. He includes a substantial account of post-lexical (phrasal) phonology and has designed his approach to be of maximum use to those seeking either to understand the phonology and morphology of Catalan and its varieties or to set these within a comparative or typological perspective. After an introduction to the varieties of Catalan the author devotes chapters to segment inventories; syllable structure; phrasal phonology; coda voicing; coda place; cluster reduction; epenthesis; stress and prosody; word phonology and allomorphy; and the syllabification of pronominal clitics. The book is fully referenced and contains a comprehensive bibliography. It is likely to be the standard account of its subject for many years.

This manual is intended to fill a gap in the area of Romance studies. There is no introduction available so far that broadly covers the field of Catalan linguistics, neither in Catalan nor in any other language. The work deals with the language spoken in Catalonia and Andorra, the Balearic Islands, the region of Valencia, Northern Catalonia and the town of l'Alguer in Sardinia. Besides introducing the ideologies of language and nation and the history of Catalan linguistics, the manual is divided into separate parts embracing the description – grammar, lexicon, variation and varieties – and the history of the language since the early medieval period to the present day. It also covers its current social and political situation in the new local and global contexts. The main emphasis is placed on modern Catalan. The manual is designed as a companion for students of Catalan, while also introducing specialists of other languages into this field, in particular scholars of Romance languages.

Spanish Phonetics and Phonology in Contact: Studies from Africa, the Americas, and Spain brings together scholars working on a wide range of aspects of the Spanish sound system and how their coexistence with another language in speech communities across the Hispanophone world influences their manifestation. Drawing upon seminal works in the fields of language contact in general, Spanish in contact with indigenous and regional languages, and laboratory approaches tied to the languages in question, the volume’s contents employ acoustic and quantitative approaches, as well as both controlled and spontaneous data elicitation procedures, to shed light on how linguistic, historical, and social variables drive contact phenomena, and in turn, shape specific varieties of Spanish. It will pique the interest of researchers and students of fields such as contact linguistics, language variation and change, segmental and suprasegmental phonetics and phonology, and sociolinguistics.

The book is a qualitative and quantitative investigation into the Catalan clitic system from Old to Modern Catalan. Building on the Minimalist Program, the author shows that a number of facts about Old Romance clitic placement that previously have either not been accounted for or have received unsatisfactory treatment can be explained in a principled way once a strict division of labor between syntax and phonology is adopted.

Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Catalan grammar, presenting an accessible and systematic description of the modern language. It is the only comprehensive grammar of the language available in English The Grammar reflects the current reality of Catalan by acknowledging regional diversity and features Balearic and Valencian varieties alongside the language used in the Barcelona region. The combined specialist knowledge of the author team ensures a balanced coverage of modern Catalan. Features include: * comprehensive coverage of all parts of speech * a wealth of authentic examples illustrating language points * attention to areas of particular difficulty for those whose first language is English * full cross-referencing * detailed index.