Matthias Heinz - Böcker

Syllable types and lexicon are subject to diachronic language contact influences. Phonotactics and loanword vocabulary in Romance languages tend toward syllable simplification, but complex structures also persist, especially in learned loanwords. Furthermore, complex syllables can result from the tendency to erase unstressed vowels. In a center-periphery arrangement of the system, a phonotactic typology of the Romance languages is thus developed.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art research on classification models and the typology of the Romance languages. It combines language area surveys with a selection of relevant structural issues, conveying theoretical foundations and research methods as well as topics in language contact and the variational typology of Romance languages.The typological accounts consider a wide range of theoretical frameworks and approaches, relating key features of the Romance language family and its subgroups to the major tendencies found across the world’s languages. The authors of the 27 chapters are specialists in their respective fields offering substantive and balanced accounts of the wider research context.The combination of perspectives from comparative Romance linguistics and typological linguistics within the multidisciplinary coverage of issues in classification, structural typology, language contact and variation makes this Manual of Romance Linguistics an essential guide to current research trends in those fields. It is written for both scholars and students of Romance linguistics and everyone interested in comparative and typological linguistics.