It has been assumed that tonal alignment is not contrastive in contour tones(e.g. Hyman 1988, Odden 1995, Yip 2002). However, Remijsen (2013) and DiCanioet al. (2014) have recently reported evidence for thisconfiguration. In relation to this controversy, we report on an acousticanalysis of the tone system of Shilluk. The dataset is built around the contrastof Low vs. Early-aligned High Fall vs.Late-aligned High Fall vs. High in closed monosyllabic stemswith a short vowel. The results support the hypothesis that tonal alignment iscontrastive in falling contour tones in Shilluk: the two falling contours differconsistently and significantly in terms of tonal alignment, relative both to oneanother and to phonetically similar level-tone configurations. The fallingcontours do not differ significantly in terms of a number of other phoneticparameters (F0 height, size of F0 change, duration).

Syllable structure in Piro, an Arawakan language spoken in Eastern Peru, exhibits properties that are of considerable interest. First, Piro allows three-consonant clusters in the syllabic onset (Matteson 1965) but a vowel-deletion rule is blocked to avoid such clusters, which makes it difficult to simply attribute the blocking to well-formedness constraints on syllable structure (cf. Kisseberth 1970a, b). Second, the onset consonant clusters are not governed by the Sonority Sequencing Principle (Selkirk 1984a, Clements 1990). The fact that all consonants except the prevocalic ones are described by Matteson (1965) as syllabic seems to obviate the need to posit complex onsets. However, these syllabic consonants do not participate in any phonological rules, including word stress and phrase-level rhythmic rules. If they are considered extrasyllabic throughout the phonology, they become exceptions to our general conceptions of extra-prosodicity, stray erasure and prosodic licensing (Itô 1986, 1989), since numerous such extrasyllabic consonants are not at the peripheral position of a well-defined domain but persist to be present throughout the derivation. Third, loss of an onset or unsyllabified consonant can lead to compensatory lengthening (henceforth CL), contradicting the moraic conservation account of CL (Hock 1986, Hayes 1989). Fourth, as Piro has no underlying long segments nor evidence for a heavy closed syllable, it becomes a counterexample to the typological prediction that CL occurs only in languages that have a pre-existing vowel-length contrast (de Chene & Anderson 1979) or syllable-weight contrast (Hayes 1989).

This paper presents data that force a revised account of the distribution of downstep and pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque. In the light of these data, previous analyses of pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque make wrong predictions. On the one hand, pitch reset is predicted where downstep occurs, and on the other, an ordinary reset is predicted where a large reset occurs. The occurrence of downstep and pitch reset, as well as the amount of pitch reset observed, is best accounted for under the assumption that languages possess a hierarchical prosodic structure that roughly matches the surface syntactic structure of a sentence, including levels of embedding or nesting of syntactic constituents. The analysis proposed in this paper is that pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque applies at the left edge of a non-minimal phonological phrase, i.e. a phonological phrase that dominates at least another phonological phrase.

One of the most fundamental recurrent issues characterising the development of linguistic theory has been the relative degree and nature of ‘modularisation’ of the various components of the grammar. Two significant developments in recent phonological theory reflect this.

We present an empirical challenge to Jardine's (2016) assertion that only tonal spreading patterns can be unbounded circumambient, meaning that the determination of a phonological value may depend on information that is an unbounded distance away on both sides. We focus on a demonstration that the ATR harmony pattern found in Tutrugbu is unbounded circumambient, and we also cite several other segmental spreading processes with the same general character. We discuss implications for the complexity of phonology and for the relationship between the explanation of typology and the evaluation of phonological theories.

The influence of non-contrastive phonetic details such as intergestural timing, stop release burst and articulatory effort expense on phonological patterning has been discussed extensively in Browman & Goldstein (1992), Flemming (1995), Jun (1995), Kirchner (1997), Silverman (1997), Boersma (1998), Gordon (1999), Hayes (1999), Steriade (1999, 2000), Zhang (forthcoming), among others. Even though the way in which phonology incorporates phonetic factors is debatable (see Hayes & Steriade, forthcoming for an overview of the debate and § 3.1.1 for more detailed discussion), the fact that there exist phonological patterns that are governed by phonetic factors seems less so. In this paper, without committing myself to any view of how phonetic factors are encoded in phonology, I present the case of Chinese retroflex suffixation in support of the relevance of non-contrastive phonetic features to categorical phonological patterning. In addition, I argue that MAXFEATURE constraints (Lombardi 1995, 1998, Casali 1996, Pulleyblank 1996, Causley 1997, Walker 1999; henceforth Max[F]) are needed to account for the data in question.

It has long been observed that not all languages fit neatly into a ‘stress’ vs. ‘tone’ dichotomy. Recent research has concentrated on how to account formally for ‘hybrid’ prominence systems which have been argued to exhibit both metrical and tonal properties.

Scottish Gaelic has been cited as providing an instance of vowel excrescence (Hall 2006). One of the defining properties of excrescent vowels is that they are phonologically inert and are not motivated by – nor do they contribute to – the syllable structure of a language. In this paper, we report on a series of experiments which tap into native speakers' intuitions of syllable structure in Scottish Gaelic. Insofar as intuitions about syllable count and syllabification reflect phonological structure, our results suggest that the relevant vowels of Scottish Gaelic are not phonologically inert, and contribute directly to native speaker intuitions involving the number of syllables and the affiliation of consonants to those syllables. However, our results also establish that the relevant vowels have an intermediate phonological status, which also distinguishes them from underlying vowels.

Plural internal reduplication in Washo has generated much interest in the phonological literature. This study presents a novel analysis that unifies the treatment of a set of seemingly disparate aspects of this plural reduplication pattern (e.g. variation in the placement and size of the reduplicant, contrastive vowel length in stressed syllables, post-tonic gemination, and vowel-length inheritance in reduplication), relying on the interaction between constraints on weight assignment, affix anchoring and stress assignment. In particular, the odd placement of the plural reduplicant in roots with internal consonant sequences and the restricted distribution of long vowels in Washo can be attributed to a previously unnoticed emerging preference for heavy stressed syllables on the surface. The results of this study have implications for theories of reduplication and theories of weight phenomena in general.

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.

Glottal consonants (/h/ and /?/) often have a special status that has led to the hypothesis that they are underspecified for both consonant and vowel place of articulation features. There is an alternative acoustically based explanation for the special status that, while workable, is valued less highly in linguistic theory. This alternative hypothesis can be ruled out only with data where the relevant acoustic phenomena are not contained in the input to be learned. I address four processes of consonant and vowel harmony in the speech of three children learning English, where the alternative hypothesis cannot account for the data. I conclude that glottals are underspecified for consonant and vowel place of articulation features, and that they lack the node in feature geometry that immediately dominates such features (either the Place node or an Oral node).

Hall (1989) introduces a rule of Fricative Assimilation (FA) in German, which, he claims, poses a challenge to the principle of Structure Preservation in Lexical Phonology, as presented in Kiparsky (1985). This claim is based on the observation that FA is demonstrably lexical because it respects morpheme boundaries, but nonetheless introduces a nondistinctive feature, thus violating a marking condition. However, Hall has not appreciated the force of the analysis of Catalan in Kiparsky (1985), which suggests that assimilated sequences may show special behaviour with respect to marking conditions. In this paper we show first, based on arguments in Kiparsky (1985), Hayes (1986) and Itô (1988), that a general constraint on the interpretation of autosegmental formalism specifically rules out the application of the marking condition to the output of FA.

Hume et al. (1997) argue that in Leti, an Austronesian language spoken on Leti Island off the coast of East Timor, geminate consonants are not moraic. In particular, they focus much of their attention on the word- initial geminates of Leti, which are syllable-initial when they begin a phrase. They argue that Leti initial geminates cannot be moraic and are instead best represented as in (1), with a single root node linked to two X- slots. (The example in (1) displays a syllable with an initial geminate; the vowel is moraic. The term root indicates the consonantal root node; the features under it are not indicated.)

While Hume et al. do not explicitly extend their discussion of the representation of initial geminates by examining relevant data in other languages, they do note (pp. 397–398) that ‘given the paucity of discussion in the phonological literature concerning syllable-initial geminates, the evidence from Leti is particularly important not only for further enriching our understanding of these segments but, in addition, for serving as a testing-ground for theories of prosodic structure and the representation of geminate consonants’. From this, one could postulate a strong position in which all initial geminates have the same, non-moraic, representation. The purpose of this squib is to argue against this strong position. While the evidence provided by Hume et al. against the moraic representation of Leti initial geminates is convincing, I present evidence in this paper showing that initial geminates are moraic in other languages. In § 2 I present data from Trukese previously discussed by Churchyard (1991), Hart (1991) and Davis & Torretta (1998) that provide a compelling case for the moraic representation of word-initial geminate consonants in that language. In § 3 I suggest that the different representations of word-initial geminates in Leti and Trukese are supported by the very different phonotactics of word-initial clusters found in the two languages. Finally, in § 4 I relate the discussion on initial geminates to the peculiar patterning of palatal segments in Italian, where palatals always surface as long except in phrase-initial position. I argue that the palatal segments in Italian are moraic even when surfacing in phrase-initial position. I conclude that initial geminates may be moraic in some languages but not in others.

The paper provides an optimality-theoretic analysis of the prosodic structure and stress patterns in templatic and non-templatic hypocoristics in Hebrew. It is designed to illustrate the emergence of the trochaic foot, whose role elsewhere in the language is rather limited. The trochaic foot has been shown to determine the structure of templatic hypocoristics in various languages; this is also true in Hebrew. In addition, it plays a major role in Hebrew non-templatic hypocoristics, which on the surface look like simple constructions of base+suffix. The trochaic foot does not delimit the number of syllables in non-templatic hypocoristics, but it plays an important role in the stress system, where the position of stress is also sensitive to the input stress and the type of suffix.

The Buchan Scots dialect of north-east Scotland exhibits a unique phonological phenomenon: vowel harmony is blocked by intervening consonants that have no secondary articulation or other obvious characteristic that should make them opaque to harmony. In this paper, I describe the harmony and blocking pattern based on new data from speakers of the modern dialect. After establishing this as a phonological rather than phonetic effect, I propose a synchronic analysis of the pattern and a phonetic explanation for the origin of this unusual sound pattern.

We have presented two different analyses of stress in Macedonian and Polish: one in terms of CGs and the other in terms of QS/ROB footing. Further, we showed how there were a number of problems with the CG account. We now consider those problems again in light of the latter analyses above.

The first problem was that the emergence of unmarked stress under suffixation did not find a uniform explanation in Macedonian and Polish. This is not true of the revised analyses. Both are couched in terms of accent and the reemergence of regular stress in both languages follows as a consequence of distribution of lexical accent. In fact, aside from the contribution of secondary stresses in Polish and their absence in Macedonian, the analyses differ minimally. Footing in Macedonian is QS; footing in Polish is ROB.

A second problem for the CG was that the reemergence of unmarked stress in Polish did not find a uniform explanation. Some cases were handled with lexical extrametricality, while others were handled with the special extrametricality rule.(44)

This is also not a problem for the revised analysis. Class I and class II now differ minimally in the placement of accent.

The third problem discussed above was the ad hoc character of the special extrametricality rule (44). This too is no longer a problem since this rule is no longer a part of the analysis. In fact, perhaps we can make the strong claim that rules of this type are to.be excluded in principle. An even stronger claim which might be supportable, though it would require we reconsider a number of analyses, is that lexical accent can never be marked with extrametricality. We leave this latter hypothesis open.

Summarising, the best analysis of Macedonian and Polish requires a theory that makes use of two different kinds of footing – quantity-sensitive (QS) and revised obligatory-branching (ROB) – and that marks accent in terms of a diacritic feature rather than in terms of grid marks without constituency. Only by adopting such a theory can we capture in a satisfying fashion the generalisation exhibited in Macedonian and Polish, that regular stress reemerges when a word with exceptional stress undergoes sufficient affixation.

Phonological patterning motivates a distinction between complex segments and segment sequences, although it has also been suggested that there might be reliable phonetic differences. We develop the hypothesis that, in addition to their distinct phonological patterning, complex segments differ from segment sequences in how constituent articulatory gestures are coordinated in time. Through computational simulation, we illustrate predictions that follow from hypothesised coordination differences, showing as well how coordination is conceptually independent of temporal duration. We test predictions with kinematic data collected using electromagnetic articulography. Electromagnetic articulography data comparing labial-palatal gestures in Russian, which we argue on the basis of phonological facts to constitute complex segments, and similar labial-palatal gestures in English, which we argue constitute segment sequences, show distinct patterns of coordination, providing robust support for our main hypothesis. At least in this case, gestural coordination conditions patterns of kinematic variation that clearly distinguish complex segments from segment sequences.

This paper examines a key difference between constraint conjunction and constraint weight additivity, arguing that the two do not have the same empirical coverage. In particular, constraint conjunction in weighted probabilistic grammar allows for superadditive constraint interaction, where the effect of violating two constraints goes beyond the additive combination of the two constraints’ weights alone. A case study from parasitic tone harmony in Dioula d'Odienné demonstrates superadditive local and long-distance segmental feature similarities that increase the likelihood of tone harmony. Superadditivity in Dioula d'Odienné is formally captured in Maximum Entropy Harmonic Grammar by weighted constraint conjunction. Counter to previous approaches that supplant constraint conjunction with weight additivity in Harmonic Grammar, information-theoretic model comparison reveals that weighted constraint conjunction improves the grammar's explanatory power when modelling quantitative natural language patterns.

Scottish Gaelic displays a phonological contrast that is realised in different dialects by means of tonal accent, glottalisation or overlength. In line with existing analyses of similar oppositions in languages such as Swedish, Danish, Franconian and Estonian, I show that this contrast reflects a difference in metrical structure. Using the framework of Stratal Optimality Theory, I argue that this metrical contrast is derived, and results from faithfulness to foot structure that is built regularly at the stem level, but rendered opaque by subsequent phonological processes. Scottish Gaelic therefore represents an intermediate stage in the diachronic development of underlyingly contrastive metrical structure. This analysis successfully accounts for the complex properties of svarabhakti, a process of copy epenthesis that is intimately connected to the phonological contrast in question, and also sheds light upon the relationship between the oppositions of tonal accent, glottalisation and overlength found in various languages of northern Europe.