Research

    My research is in phonology and its intersection with morphology. My recent work has also incorporated research in phonetics and psycholinguistics. I emphasize theory construction and analysis based on a solid empirical database, working with native speakers. I work on African languages, particularly the Ethiopian and Eritrean Semitic languages (linguistic designation: Ethio-Semitic ). I have conducted research on Tigre, Tigrinya, Harari (or Adarinya) and Gurage (Chaha, Endegen, Ezha, Gyeta, Muher). Recently, along with Farrell Ackerman and graduate students, I have been working on Moro, a Kordofanian language spoken in Sudan.

    Here are some current and past projects:

    Moro Language Project

    This project, funded by an NSF grant, is dedicated to producing a descriptive grammar of Moro (Thetogovela dialect), as well as theoretical papers. Some work that has arisen from this include:
  • (w/Farrell Ackerman, George Gibbard, Peter Jenks, Laura Kertz, Hannah Rohde) The Morphosyntax of Filler-Gap Constructions in Moro. Presented at the 40th Annual Conference on African Linguistics
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. to appear. High Tone in Moro: Effects of Prosodic Categories and Morphological Domains. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. to appear. Syllable Weight and High Tone in Moro. Papers from the 45th Chicago Linguistic Society.
  • Gibbard, George, Hannah Rohde & Sharon Rose. (2009). Moro Noun Class Morphology. In M. Matondo, F. McLaughlin & E. Potsdam (eds.) Selected Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 106-117.

    • Ejective fricatives in Tigrinya

    A project with Ryan Shosted (UIUC) examining the acoustic properties of ejective fricatives in Tigrinya. Ejective fricatives are unusual sounds, and present conflicting articulatory demands on airflow. We are examining to what extent Tigrinya resolves this problem through affrication. Full length paper submitted. Presentations:
  • "Tigrinya fricatives: are they really fricatives?" North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics’, Chicago, IL
  • "Affrication of ejective ‘fricatives’ in Tigrinya", Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL

    • Tone and metrical structure

    Metrical structure can affect the distribution and spreading of tone. Two recent papers argue for its role in lexical tone melodies.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. to appear. High Tone in Moro: Effects of Prosodic Categories and Morphological Domains. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. to appear. Syllable Weight and High Tone in Moro. Papers from the 45th Chicago Linguistic Society.
  • Weidman, Scott & Sharon Rose. (2006). A foot-based reanalysis of edge-in tonal phenomena in Bambara. Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 25: 426-434.

    Duration - phonetic effects on phonology

    This project investigates how phonetic duration of consonants can impact phonological categorical length distinctions. It has had two parts - an investigation of Endegen gemination and Friulan vowel lengthening. I am currently working on the latter with graduate student, Rebecca Colavin. We are examining data from several speakers from Istrago, Italy.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2006). Durational Conditions on Endegen Gemination. In. S. Uhlig (ed.) Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 843-850.
  • O'Bryan, Todd & Sharon Rose. (2004). Segmental effects on (de)gemination in Western Gurage. In A. Simpson (ed.) Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Special Session on Afroasiatic Languages, pp. 87-98.

    • Long-distance interactions

    A project on the analysis of long-distance segmental interactions. Consonant harmony (or agreement) was reanalyzed in Rose & Walker (2004) not as long-distance spreading, but as correspondence between similar segments. A similar mechanism was employed in work on long-distance palatalization in Harari. The speech errors paper with Lisa King tested speakers' sensitivity to both the OCP and laryngeal agreement constraints.
  • Rose, Sharon & Rachel Walker. Harmony Systems. (to appear) In J. Goldsmith, J. Riggle & A. Yu (eds.) Handbook of Phonological Theory (2nd ed.). Blackwell.
  • Rose, Sharon & Lisa King. (2007). Speech error elicitation and co-occurrence restrictions in two Ethiopian Semitic languages. Language and Speech 50:451-504.
  • Rose, Sharon & Rachel Walker. (2004) A typology of consonant agreement as correspondence. Language 80:475-531.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2004). Long distance vowel-consonant agreement in Harari. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 25:41-87.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2000). Rethinking geminates, long-distance geminates and the OCP. Linguistic Inquiry 31:85-122.

    Descriptive and theoretical work on Gurage and other Ethio-Semitic languages

  • Rose, Sharon. (2007). Chaha(Gurage) Morphology. In A. Kaye (ed.) Morphologies of Asia and Africa Eisenbraums, pp. 399-424.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2003). The formation of Ethio-Semitic internal reduplication. In J. Shimron (ed.) Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-based Morphology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 79-97.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2000). Epenthesis Positioning and Syllable Contact in Chaha. Phonology 17.3:397-425.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2000). Velar Lenition in Muher Gurage. Lingua Posnaniensis 42:107-116.