Phonological Weakness in English

PAOLA CRISMA, University of Trieste, ItalyEDWARD FLEMMING, MIT, USARAMOND HICKEY, Essen UniversityMARGARET LAING, Institute for Historical Dialectology, University of Edinburgh, UKROGER LASS is Professor Emeritus and Senior Professorial Fellow at University of Cape Town, South AfricaLISA LAVOIE, Eliza Corporation and Emerson CollegeAPRIL McMAHON, Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, UKJULIA SCHL?TER, University of Bamberg, GermanyKIE ROSS ZURAW, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

• Notes on Contributors Introduction: D.Minkova PART I: PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF WEAKNESS Treatments of Weakness in Phonological Theory; K.R.Zuraw Testing Consonant Weakness Phonetically; L.Lavoie PART II: DIAGNOSING AND INTERPRETING ENGLISH SCHWA(S) On Schwa: Synchronic Prelude and Historical Fugue; R.Lass The Phonetics of Schwa Vowels; E.Flemming PART III: HISTORICAL AND DIALECTAL CASE STUDIES Perspectives on Weakness From English /r/; A.McMahon Weak Segments in Irish English; R.Hickey Word-Initial h- in Middle and Early Modern English; P.Crisma Consonant or 'Vowel'? A Diachronic Study of Initial h From Early Middle English to Nineteenth-Century English; J.Schlüter PART IV: PROSODIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF WEAKNESS Weak Segments and Syllable Structure in Middle English; J.Schlüter Orthographic Indications of Weakness in Early Middle English; M.Laing Inflectional Syncope vs Epenthesis: Notes on the History of the Weak Preterite in English; D.Minkova Index