Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2018
It is known that consonants can act as boundary markers when they are located at the left edge of a prosodic domain, helping listeners to parse incoming speech. To achieve maximum efficiency in marking out boundaries, those markers should be acoustically salient. In Element Theory, domain markers are represented by the elements |H| and |ʔ|. Being inherently voiceless, these elements stand apart from the other elements, which are spontaneously voiced. Most languages show a preference for incorporating |H| or |ʔ| into segmental structures which stand at the left edge of domains. This paper challenges the universality of this view by analysing data from Kaqchikel, a K’iche’an language with a bias for marking the right edge of domains rather than the left. The marker in question is intense/prolonged noise which, in Element Theory is represented by |H|. The |H| element is present in fortis fricatives and aspirates, and in Kaqchikel it regularly appears in segments at the right edge of prosodic domains where it serves as a domain boundary marker. Boundary marking in Kaqchikel is analysed here using a Precedence-free Phonology approach to melodic structure (Nasukawa 2016) in which the linear ordering of segments is determined by the hierarchical organization of melodic units (elements) within a unified melodic–prosodic structure.
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2012 meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain (University of Salford, UK) the 145th meeting of the Japan Linguistic Society (Autumn 2012; Kyushu University, Japan) and the 10th Old World Conference in Phonology (2013; Boğaziçi University, Turkey). We are grateful to the conference participants for their feedback and to three anonymous Journal of Linguistics referees for their insightful and instructive comments on an earlier draft. We alone are responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. We also thank Juan Esteban Ajsivinac Sian, Filiberto Patal Majzul, Lolmay Pedro Oscar García Mátzar and other supporting staff members and informants for providing data from Kaqchikel. This work was supported by the Japanese government (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), (B) and (C), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), grant numbers 15H02603, 26284067 and 15K02611).