Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2013
Through analyses of laryngeal co-occurrence restrictions in two varieties of Aymara, this article shows that contrastively specified representations are crucial in shaping phonological patterning. The article argues for a model of contrastive specifications in which features are hierarchically ordered (Dresher 2009). This results in asymmetries between features such that, for a given inventory, some features are contrastively specified in a greater number of segments than others. This asymmetry between features plays a central role in accounting for the interaction of place of articulation features and laryngeal features in Bolivian Aymara. The article also demonstrates that contrastive representations can be achieved as output forms in Optimality Theory and that the constraints which determine contrastive representations can be integrated with constraints which motivate restrictions on the co-occurrence, ordering and location of laryngeal features in Peruvian and Bolivian Aymara.
Thank you to Peter Avery, Elan Dresher, Heather Goad, Daniel Currie Hall, Larry Hyman, Yoonjung Kang and Keren Rice. Thanks also to audiences at the 2009 Toronto–Tromsø Phonology Workshop and the 19th Manchester Phonology Meeting. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and associate editor for detailed and thoughtful comments. This work was supported in part by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship #756-2010-0288.