The canonical image of vowel harmony is of a particular feature distributed throughout a word, leading to symmetric constraints like AGREE or SPREAD. Examination of the distribution of tongue-root advancement in Kinande demonstrates that harmonic feature distribution is asymmetric. The data argue that a formal (yet asymmetric) constraint (like ALIGN) is exactly half right: such a constraint correctly characterises the left edge of the harmonic domain. By contrast, the right edge is necessarily characterised by phonetically grounded restrictions on feature co-occurrence. Of further interest is the role of morphological domains: the interaction between domain restrictions on specific constraints and unrestricted constraints suggests a formal means of characterising the overwhelming similarity between constraint hierarchies at different morphological levels while at the same time characterising the distinctions between levels.

It is well known that initially and when preceded by a word that ends with a voiceless sound, German so-called ‘voiced’ stops are usually voiceless, that intervocalically both voiced and voiceless stops occur and that syllable-final (obstruent) stops are voiceless. Such a distribution is consistent with an analysis in which the contrast is one of [voice] and syllable-final stops are devoiced. It is also consistent with the view that in German the contrast is between stops that are [spread glottis] and those that are not. On such a view, the intervocalic voiced stops arise because of passive voicing of the non-[spread glottis] stops. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental results that support the view that German has underlying [spread glottis] stops, not [voice] stops.

Coronals have been claimed to behave as unmarked consonants in epenthesis. However, it is well known that the glottal consonants ([h ʔ]) are frequently epenthetic, and the empirical basis for the claim about coronal epenthesis has been weak, with only a single example commonly cited. I will show that coronals can in fact occur as epenthetic segments, but only in specific situations showing the classic signs of constraint conflict. I will argue that these patterns can be accounted for in Optimality Theory using fully specified Place in the representations and extending Smolensky's (1993) universally ranked *PLACE hierarchy so that the glottals have the least marked Place. The result will be that when all other things are equal, glottals will be the ideal epenthetic consonant, but when some higher-ranked requirement makes epenthesising a glottal impossible, the still relatively low-ranked position of *COR means that coronals will be the next best way to satisfy Place markedness.

This paper argues in favour of the analysis of Tohono O'odham stress originally presented in Fitzgerald (1997). This analysis relies on a single grammar in which metrical and rhythmic constraints are interleaved with the MORPHEME-TO-STRESS PRINCIPLE (MSP), a constraint that requires morphemes to be stressed. The single-grammar approach is contrasted with the co-phonology account offered for the same data in Yu (2000). The two analyses use the same basic constraints, with the exception of the MSP. Instead of this constraint, Yu uses three separate co-phonologies. The comparison between the two theories is focused on this difference, the MSP vs. the multiple grammars of the co-phonology model. The point made here is that Tohono O'odham does not need co-phonologies.

In his article ‘Consonant cluster neutralisation and targeted constraints’, Wilson (2001) proposes a far-reaching revision of Optimality Theory to accommodate targeted constraints, which compare candidates differing only in certain specific ways. Targeted constraints, it is argued, can explain why cluster-simplification processes affect the first member of a cluster but never the more marked member of a cluster. In this remark, I show that this argument encounters difficulties once it has been embedded in a fuller picture of constraint interaction. Some general properties of the targeted-constraints model are also discussed.