Alex in Manchester
May 23, 2023
On virtual length and substance free phonology at the 30th mfm.
Saturday May 27, Alex Chabot is in Manchester, England, discussing "Vowel reduction in European Portuguese: Virtual length and Substance-Free Phonology" at the 30th Anniversary Jubilee Meeting of the Manchester Phonology Meeting, styled as "mfm". Presenting between the scheduled "Midday Meal" and "Tea, Coffee and Biscuits" breaks, Alex argues that the interface between phonology and phonetics is "lawless", and thus that phonology is itself "substance-free," based on an analysis of vowels in European Portugese that treats the unreduced as phonologically long, despite being phonetically short, an arbitrary relation.
Home to many brilliant rock legends - The Hollies, The Fall, Buzzcocks, Joy Division and New Order, The Smiths and Morrissey, Stone Roses and Oasis, among many others - Manchester was known in the Victorian era as "Cottonopolis."