Syllable and Word Languages () von Javier Caro Reina

The linguae & litterae series, edited by Peter Auer, Gesa von Essen and Werner Frick, documents the research activities of the School of Language and Literature of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). These research activities in literary studies and linguistics are characterized by an approach that is theoretically and methodologically “state of the art” and interdisciplinarily open.

In linguistics the accent is on the corpus-based, quantitative and qualitative investigation of language; in literary studies the focus is on the comparative, transdisciplinary analysis of literary phenomena in their cultural contexts. At the same time the series deals with the productive interfaces and synergies between modern linguistics and literary studies (as well as the humanities, social and natural sciences with which they interact). It seeks a new, contemporary reformulation of the humanities research curriculum and its problem and concept orientation for the future.

The series has a clear international orientation - each volume is multilingual, containing German, English and French contributions and, depending on the volume, articles in Italian or Spanish as well. Each individual volume is peer reviewed by an international editorial board.

Each year 2-4 volumes are published.

This is the first volume concerned with the phonological typology of syllable and word languages, based on the model of a complex, multi-layered and hierarchically structured phonological system. The main typological claim is that the phonetic and phonological make-up of a language depends on the relevance of the prosodic categories. In previous research, the syllable and the phonological word have already proved to be typologically important. The contributions in this volume discuss theoretical questions and address issues such as the variable structure of the phonological word, the interplay between phonetics and phonology as well as the effect of a languages phonological make-up on its morphology or lexicon. The volume provides detailed synchronic and diachronic analyses of (Non-)Indo-European languages which will serve as a basis for further typological research.

Javier Caro Reina, University of Cologne, Germany;Renata Szczepaniak, University of Hamburg, Germany.