[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-142428-105":59,"doc-detail-142428-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","hiatus-and-rising-diphthong-favoring-contexts-in-catalan","Hiatus and rising diphthong-favoring contexts in Catalan","","The paper examines how Catalan handles sequences involving lexical unstressed high vowels and their treatment as syllable nuclei or as glides. It contrasts rising-sonority diphthongs versus hiatus pronunciations, tracing a shift from earlier systematic hiatus tendencies toward broader diphthongization across word positions and Catalan varieties. The analysis considers evidence from descriptive and prescriptive sources, accounts for dialectal and speaker variation, and frames the change as part of ongoing sound change influenced by external contact with Castilian Spanish and French.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/hiatus-and-rising-diphthong-favoring-contexts-in-catalan/142428/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/hiatus-and-rising-diphthong-favoring-contexts-in-catalan/142428.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Eliana","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-25","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",15,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What are the main pronunciation options for unstressed high vowels in Catalan?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"Unstressed high vowels can form syllable nuclei (producing hiatus) or surface as glides, yielding rising diphthongs in certain contexts.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How is the traditional hiatus tendency changing in modern Catalan?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"While hiatus is still common at word beginnings, diphthongs have been generalized at word ends across Catalan varieties, showing a broader trend toward diphthongization.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What role does language contact play in Catalan diphthongization?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Contact with Castilian Spanish and French is identified as an external factor supporting increased diphthongization, aligning Catalan with a wider Romance tendency.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},142428,1787681054,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},4398048949847,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267","*  \nHiatus and rising diphthong-favoring contexts in Catalan  \nTeresa Cabré -Pilar Prieto  \nteresa.cabre@uab.es -pilar.prieto@uab.es Departament de Filologia Catalana-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona  \n1 Introduction  \nIn Catalan, lexical unstressed high vowels ([i],[u]) can either constitute the nucleus of a syllable (i.e., universitat [uniB´rsi»tat], imitar [imi»ta]) or become glides [j], [w] in the context before and after a vowel, surfacing either as diphthongs of rising sonority [j,w]V (quasi [»kwazi], estació [´st´»sjo], àvia [»aBj´]) or as diphthongs of falling sonority V[j,w](vailet [b´j»lEt], eina [»Ejn´], brau [»bRaw], cuina [»kujn´] 1. In contrast with sequences of falling sonority, which are most often pronounced as diphthongs, up until recently the Catalan language has shown a very systematic tendency to pronounce as hiatus all lexical sequences of vocoids of rising sonority such as m [i»ç]l, p [i»a]no, d[i´]dema, c[i´]nur, clar [i»a]na. Whereas this tendency is still very strongly settled at the beginning of the word, diphthongs have been generalized at the end of the word in all Catalan varieties in items such as justíc[j´], victòr [j´], nac [»jo] orimaginac[»jo] . In one of his first Catalan grammars, Fabra (1912) already noted an early tendency to contract into a diphthong sequences of rising sonority in postaccentual environments such as llànt[j´], ingèn[w´], in nominal affixes such as comprens [»jo], flex[»jo], and in some other unstressed positions such as var [j´]bilitat.2 Nevertheless, the prescriptive grammars of the language still portrait the old pronunciation of these sequences as hiatus: for instance, the recent oral guidelines by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (1990) recommend that practically all vocoid sequences of rising sonority should be pronounced in hiatus in a formal register.3  \nToday there exists an ever stronger trend to pronounce as diphthongs sequences traditionally pronounced as hiatus. Indeed, all of the studies dealing with rising  \n* We are grateful to J.I. Hualde, M. Kenstowicz, E. Bonet, M.R. Lloret, J. Mascaró and M. Wheeler for helpful suggestions and comments during the preparation of this paper. Thanks are due to all our informantsand colleagues who have patiently answered our questionnaire. This work has benefited from the participation of both authors in the following research grants: BFF2000-0403-C02-02, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura; 2000XT-00032, Xarxa Temàtica, Generalitat de Catalunya and 2001 SGR 00150 DURSI, Generalitat de Catalunya.  \n1 Note that, in contrast with neighboring languages such as Spanish or French, the diphthongs iu and ui are pronounced in Central Catalan as sequences of falling sonority, that is, with the nucleus in the first high vowel: cuina [»kujn´], piu [»piw] .  \n2 Joseph Pau Ballot (1747-1821) already noticed a pronunciation with a diphthong in items such as oració, unió, victòria or desgràcia. One of the main pieces of evidence he presents is the scansion of these words in poems by Francesc Vicens Garcia (1582-1623) .  \n3 This recent prescriptive document issued by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans states that “the diphthongisation of sequences such as condició, ciència, [etc. is](etc. is) only admissible in the general territory in an informal register.”(Institut d’Estudis Catalans 1990:15)  \ndiphthong/hiatus contrasts have acknowledged this phenomenon by highlighting both the dialectal and idiolectal variation the process is subject to (Oliva 1977, Recasens 1991, 1993; Bonet & Lloret 1998; Jiménez 1999) . As Recasens (1993:113) remarks, “the degree of variation this process displays reveals the existence of a changing process to favor a pronunciation with diphthong (a newer one) over a pronunciation with hiatus (an older one) .” The fact that among young speakers clariana is often pronounced [kl´»Rjan´] rather than [kl´Ri»an´] distinctly reflects the state of variation this process is subject to. It is a wellaccepted fact that variation i","cbCaivnYnzmRVSyz","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivnYnzmRVSyz","pdf",524027,25,"English","# Introduction\n## Rising sonority vs hiatus in Catalan\n## Prescriptive guidance and descriptive variation\n## Mechanisms of sound change and language contact\n## Paper aims and empirical focus","[{\"question\":\"What are the main pronunciation options for unstressed high vowels in Catalan?\",\"answer\":\"Unstressed high vowels can form syllable nuclei (producing hiatus) or surface as glides, yielding rising diphthongs in certain contexts.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the traditional hiatus tendency changing in modern Catalan?\",\"answer\":\"While hiatus is still common at word beginnings, diphthongs have been generalized at word ends across Catalan varieties, showing a broader trend toward diphthongization.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does language contact play in Catalan diphthongization?\",\"answer\":\"Contact with Castilian Spanish and French is identified as an external factor supporting increased diphthongization, aligning Catalan with a wider Romance tendency.\"}]","Hiatus and rising diphthong-favoring contexts in Catalan | PDF",63]