Allegro rules in colloquial Thai: some thoughts on process phonology

Abstract

As part of an investigation into rapid speech and its rule-based processes, I want to present an analysis of colloquial spoken Thai and show how different tempi can be related to one another. I also want to see whether the processes displayed by colloquial Thai fit into the general picture of phonological processes which has emerged over the past 15 years or so (roughly Stampe, 1969, onwards) within different theoretical frameworks. In particular I shall try to relate my findings to the increasingly accepted notions of richer phonological structure now being envisaged (e.g. Clements & Keyser, 1983 – tridimensional; Goldsmith, 1976 a & b – autosegmental; Liberman & Prince, 1977 and Kiparsky, 1979 – metrical; Anderson & Ewen, 1980, and Durand, 1986 a – dependency).