Research

    My research is in phonology and its intersection with morphology. I have also collaborated with other researchers in both phonetics and psycholinguistics.
    My approach to phonology is to conduct in-depth research on African languages with native speakers, using the data as a springboard to investigate theoretical and typological topics. I have two main language specializations - Ethio-Semitic languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia and Kordofanian languages of Sudan.
    My Semitic research on Tigre, Tigrinya, Harari (or Adarinya) and Gurage (Chaha, Endegen, Ezha, Gyeta, Muher) languages has led to projects on long distance harmony, reduplication, templatic morphology and the phonetics and phonology of ejectives and gutturals.
    My current focus is on tone, intonation, vowel harmony, dissimilation in Moro, a Kordofanian language of Sudan. A project on ideophones in Moro has led to an interest in the phonological characteristics of ideophones in relation to the 'standard' phonology of a language. I am also working on a typological study of ATR vowel systems in Eastern Africa, particularly Sudan and South 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:

  • Bennett, Wm. G & Sharon Rose. (to appear). Correspondence and Moro [-voice] dissimilation. Phonology.
  • Ritchart, Amanda & Sharon Rose. (2017). Moro vowel harmony: implications for transparency and representation. Phonology 34, 1-38.
  • Jenks, Peter & Sharon Rose. (2017). Documenting Control and Raising in Moro. In Jason Kandybowicz & Harold Torrence (eds.) Africa's Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches. Oxford University Press, 207-235.
  • Rose, Sharon & Page Piccinini. (2016). Intonation in the Thetogovela dialect of Moro. In Laura Downing & Annie Rialland (eds.) Intonation in African Tone Languages. Mouton, 19-50.
  • Chung, Younah, Page Piccinini & Sharon Rose. (2016). The interaction of polar question and declarative intonation with lexical tone in Moro. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 8.
  • Ritchart, Amanda & Sharon Rose. (2015). Schwas in Moro Vowel Harmony. In Ruth Kramer, Elizabeth Zsiga & One Tlale Boyer (eds.) Selected Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 231-242.
  • Jenks, Peter & Sharon Rose. (2015). Mobile object markers in Moro: the role of tone. Language.
  • Rose, Sharon, Farrell Ackerman, George Gibbard, Peter Jenks, Laura Kertz & Hannah Rohde. (2014). Wh-question constructions in Moro. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 35.1, 91-125.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2013). The morphological structure of the Moro verb. In T. Schadeberg & R. Blench (eds.) Nuba Mountain Language Studies. Cologne: Rudiger Koppe, 25-56.
  • Strabone, Andrew & Sharon Rose. (2012). Morphophonological Properties of Moro Causatives. In B. Connell & N. Rolle (eds.). Selected Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 92-103.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. (2011). High Tone in Moro: Effects of Prosodic Categories and Morphological Domains. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29, 211-250.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. (2009). Syllable Weight and High Tone in Moro. Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 45., 271-285.
  • 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.

    • 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, and in dissimilation in Moro. However, transparent effects in vowel harmony do not always behave the same way as in consonant harmony and do not require correspondence. In Moro vowel harmony, transparent effects turn out to be illusory, based on phonetic evidence.

  • Bennett, Wm. G & Sharon Rose. (to appear). Correspondence and Moro [-voice] dissimilation. Phonology.
  • Ritchart, Amanda & Sharon Rose. (2017). Moro vowel harmony: implications for transparency and representation. Phonology 34, 1-38.
  • Rose, Sharon. (2011) Long-distance assimilation of consonants. In Marc van Oostendorp, Colin Ewen, Elizabeth Hume, and Keren Rice (eds.).The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Rose, Sharon & Rachel Walker. (2011) Harmony Systems. 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.

    Tone and prosody

    Lexical tone interacts with metrical structure and intonation. It can also, surprisingly, affect affix placement.

  • Rose, Sharon & Page Piccinini. (2016). Intonation in the Thetogovela dialect of Moro. In Laura Downing & Annie Rialland (eds.) Intonation in African Tone Languages. Mouton, 19-50.
  • Chung, Younah, Page Piccinini & Sharon Rose. (2016). The interaction of polar question and declarative intonation with lexical tone in Moro. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 8.
  • Jenks, Peter & Sharon Rose. (2015). Mobile object markers in Moro: the role of tone. Language.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. (2011). High Tone in Moro: Effects of Prosodic Categories and Morphological Domains. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29, 211-250.
  • Jenks Peter & Sharon Rose. (2009). Syllable Weight and High Tone in Moro. Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 45., 271-285.
  • 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.

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

  • Chamora, Berhanu, Jean-François Prunet & Sharon Rose. (to appear). Inor Group. In Bedilu Wakjira, Ronny Meyer, Yvonne Treis & Zelealem Leyew (eds.) Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. Oxford University Press.
  • Shosted, Ryan & Sharon Rose. (2011). Affricating ejective fricatives: The case of Tigrinya. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 41(1), 41-65.
  • 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.