Allegro rules are phonological statements about how utterances at different speech tempi are related. Some languages have no discernible allegro (tempo-dependent) phenomena at all, others can be completely described with a set of rules that tell you what allegro (fast) form corresponds to what lento (slow) form. Still other languages, like American English, can only be partly described with a set of rules (deriving [Brai] from /pr'ab@bli/, for instance) -- part of AmE allegro speech can only be described lexically (listing [D@~o~u~] for /d'ontn'o/ {don't know} but no allegro form for /d'ontn'o/ {Don't! No!}).
I have found that the most parsimonious description of allegro phenomena involves a separate phonology (phoneme inventory and phonotactics) for each tempo. Speakers can be observed to "fall into" a coherent phonology associated with the chosen tempo.
Copyright © 1997, Jack Durst,
Last updated: 2 October, 1997