This paper offers a novel account of a familiar typological observation, namely the tendency of phonological inventories to consist of segments that are dispersed through the available auditory space. In contrast to previous approaches, which have treated dispersion as a goal explicitly encoded in the grammar, this paper shows that the cross-linguistic pattern follows automatically from the interaction of two independently motivated factors: phonological representations in which only contrastive features are specified, and the enhancement of these features in phonetic implementation. The merits of this approach are illustrated by examples involving both vocalic and consonantal inventories.

Vowel duration is not contrastive in standard and regional varieties of Italian. However, vowels in stressed open syllables are longer than unstressed vowels or vowels in closed syllables. The increased duration is not equal in all positions. Most notably, the increased duration of a stressed open penultimate syllable is much greater than the duration of a stressed open antepenultimate syllable or a stressed final syllable, which has no noticeable duration increase. Nonetheless, phonological analyses of Italian have characterised length by a single rule (see for example Vogel 1986, Nespor & Vogel 1986) that lengthens non-final main stress vowels regardless of position. Phonetic studies, particularly Farnetani & Kori (1983, 1990) and Marotta (1985), pay closer attention to the duration of stressed vowels in different positions. Although their explanations of stressed vowel duration differ, the common theme is that duration differences are due to shortening vowels as a consequence of word compression or position (antepenultimate or penultimate syllable) in the word.

While the phonetic approaches account for differences in duration due to shortening, the phonological approaches propose lengthening with no regard for actual duration differences. The phonetic and phonological approaches to stressed vowel duration in Italian appear to be diametrically opposed. This paper proposes that lengthening a stressed vowel is the correct characterisation of duration differences in Italian, but there is no single rule that lengthens stressed vowels.

This paper reconciles the standpoint that language users do not aim at improving their sound systems with the observation that languages seem to improve their sound systems. If learners optimise their perception by gradually ranking their cue constraints, and reuse the resulting ranking in production, they automatically introduce a prototype effect, which can be counteracted by an articulatory effect. If the two effects are of unequal size, the learner will end up with a sound system auditorily different from that of her language environment. Computer simulations of sibilant inventories show that, independently of the initial auditory sound system, a stable equilibrium is reached within a small number of generations. In this stable state, the dispersion of the sibilants of the language strikes an optimal balance between articulatory ease and auditory contrast. Crucially, these results are derived within a model without any goal-oriented elements such as dispersion constraints.

This article is concerned with the internal structure of coronals. Although coronals are often considered the least marked consonants on the basis of frequency and acquisition, current models of feature geometry assign coronality no special status among places of articulation.1 In this paper, we argue that the structure of coronals differs from that of other consanats in that coronals lack a Place node altogether.

The intonation of Greek wh-questions consists of a rise-fall followed by a low plateau and a final rise. Using acoustic data, we show (i) that the exact contour shape depends on the length of the question, and (ii) that the position of the first peak and the low plateau depends on the position of the stressed syllables, and shows predictable adjustments in alignment, depending on the proximity of adjacent tonal targets. Models that specify the F0 of all syllables, or models that specify F0 by superposing contour shapes for shorter and longer domains, cannot account for such fine-grained lawful variation except by using ad hoc tonal specifications, which, in turn, do not allow for phonological generalisations about contours applying to utterances of greatly different lengths. In contrast, our findings follow easily from an autosegmental-metrical approach to intonational phonology, according to which melodies may contain long F0 stretches derived by interpolation between specified targets associated with metrically strong syllables and prosodic boundaries.

One of the common assumptions of standard metrical phonology (Hayes 1981) is that rules of stress placement do not refer to the weight or nature of syllable onsets. This is most clearly stated in Halle & Vergnaud (1980:93): ‘in all languages known to us, stress assignment rules are sensitive to the structure of the syllable rime, but disregard completely the character of the onset’. This assumption has been attacked by both Davis (1982, 1985a, b) and Everett & Everett (1984). These researchers have pointed to a number of languages which seem to have stress-placement rules that are sensitive to the nature of the syllable onset. For example, Davis (1985a, b) notes that Western Aranda (an Arandic language of Australia) has a stress rule that places main stress on the initial syllable if it begins with a consonant; otherwise stress falls on the second syllable. However, if the word is bisyllabic, stress must fall on the initial syllable, since final syllables are always extrametrical.

Blends, also called portmanteau words, are formed by fusing two words into one new word, where internal portions of the base words are often subtracted (one segmental string from the right part of the first word and another from the left part of the second word). For example, the English blend nixonomics has been formed by combining nixon and economics and subtracting the string neco. (For clarity of exposition, blends will be usually represented as nixo <n⋅eco> nomics, where the subtracted material is enclosed in angled brackets and the boundary between the base elements is indicated by ⋅).

Harmonic Grammar is a model of linguistic constraint interaction in which well-formedness is calculated in terms of the sum of weighted constraint violations. We show how linear programming algorithms can be used to determine whether there is a weighting for a set of constraints that fits a set of linguistic data. The associated software package OT-Help provides a practical tool for studying large and complex linguistic systems in the Harmonic Grammar framework and comparing the results with those of OT. We first describe the translation from harmonic grammars to systems solvable by linear programming algorithms. We then develop a Harmonic Grammar analysis of ATR harmony in Lango that is, we argue, superior to the existing OT and rule-based treatments. We further highlight the usefulness of OT-Help, and the analytic power of Harmonic Grammar, with a set of studies of the predictions Harmonic Grammar makes for phonological typology.

This paper argues that rather than just select the best candidate, EVAL imposes a harmonic rank-ordering on the full candidate set. Language users have access to this enriched information, and it shapes their performance. This paper applies this idea to variation. The claim is that language users can access the full candidate set via the rank-ordering imposed by EVAL. In variation, more than one candidate is well-formed enough to count as grammatical. Consequently, language users will access more than just the best candidate from the rank-ordering. However, the accessibility of a candidate depends on its position on the rank-ordering. The higher the position a candidate occupies, the more likely it is to be selected. In a variable process, variants that appear higher on the rank-ordering (i.e. are more well-formed) will therefore also be the more frequent variants. This model is applied to variation in the phonology of Faialense Portuguese and Ilokano.

This article discusses the syntax–prosody interface, drawing on evidence from Stockholm Swedish. It is shown that a Swedish main clause containing an embedded clause has three prosodic correlates, two of which are non-isomorphic to the syntactic bracketing. However, two coordinated clauses have only one – isomorphic – prosodic correlate. Optimality-theoretic constraints (Prince & Smolensky 1993) are used to derive this variation. A new markedness constraint, EqualSisters, is argued to be responsible for a preference for flat prosodic structures. This constraint requires that sister nodes in prosodic structure belong to the same prosodic category, and therefore sometimes conflicts with match constraints, which call for syntax–prosody correspondence (Selkirk 2009, 2011). When high-ranked, EqualSisters forces syntax–prosody non-isomorphism if the input syntactic structure contains embedding, whereas full isomorphism is predicted in coordinated structures. The previously suggested markedness constraints Non-recursivity and Exhaustivity (Selkirk 1996) cannot replace EqualSisters, and in the present account are rendered redundant.

This paper builds on growing evidence that aspirated or fortis obstruents in languages like English and German are laryngeally marked, but that phonetic voicing in the (unmarked) unaspirated or lenis series is contextually determined. Employing the laryngeal feature set proposed by Halle & Stevens (1971), as incorporated into the ‘dimensional theory’ of laryngeal representation (Avery & Idsardi 2001, forthcoming), we develop an explicit account of this phonetic enhancement of phonological contrasts, which is widely known as ‘passive voicing’. We find that both passive voicing and inherent aspiration have been phonetic and phonological characteristics of the Germanic languages since the break-up of Indo-European, with laryngeally unmarked stops repeatedly enhanced by the gesture of [spread glottis]. A key implication of this view is that Verner's Law was not an innovation specifically of early Germanic, but rather is an automatic (ultimately phonologised) reflex of passive voicing, itself a ‘persistent change’ rising out of the enduring ‘base of articulation’ that came to characterise Germanic.

Ambivalent segments are speech sounds whose cross-linguistic patterning is especially variable, creating contradictions for theories of universal distinctive features. This paper examines lateral liquids, whose [continuant] specification has been the subject of controversy because of their ability to pattern both with continuants and with non-continuants, and because phonetically they are situated in the contested ground between two different articulatory definitions for the feature [continuant]. Evidence from a survey of sound patterns in 561 languages shows that lateral liquids, like nasals, pattern with continuants about as often as with non-continuants. Ambivalent phonological behaviour is argued to be natural and expected for phonetically ambiguous segments in a theory of emergent distinctive features where features are the result of sound patterns, rather than the other way around.

One of the major advances in phonological theory during the past twenty years has been the refinement of a theory regarding the representation and behaviour of tones (Goldsmith 1976, 1990, Fromkin 1978, Clements & Goldsmith 1984, Hyman 1986, 1993, Pulleyblank 1986, 1997), particularly for African tone languages and East Asian tone languages (for recent reviews see Odden 1995 and Yip 1995). A general outline of such a theory, using an autosegmental framework, might be something like the following: (a) Tones or tone melodies are represented in underlying phonological representations (UR); in some cases they are linked to specific ‘tone-bearing units’ (TBUs) such as syllables, moras or vowels on other tiers in UR, and in other cases they are unlinked. (b) Phonological rules will associate tones with correct TBUs according to universal and language-specific principles, including a universal well-formedness condition, such that no tones or TBUs which remain at the end of the derivation are unassociated. Tones may be delinked and omitted or reassociated by phonological rules, which may involve tone spreading, tone sandhi and a number of other phenomena. (c) Tones have a primarily lexical rather than syntagmatic function. (d) Contour tones are represented in UR as a sequence of two or more level tones, and function as tone sequences in tone rules, such that for example an underlying HL sequence may surface as either a falling contour tone on a single TBU or a high–low sequence on two adjacent TBUs. (e) It is assumed that tonal systems in all languages follow the same universal principles, which underlie the theory outlined here.

The Northern and Western dialects of the Mon-Khmer language Kammu use fundamental frequency to distinguish words, while the Eastern dialect relies on the contrastive voicing of initial consonants to distinguish words which display an F0 contrast in the other dialects. The production and perception of tones in the three dialects is investigated, using recordings and perception tests. As expected, Northern and Western Kammu speakers do use F0 to distinguish words, as seen both in their production and in perception tests, which show that they could distinguish small F0 differences. In contrast, Eastern Kammu speakers neither produce nor perceive F0 differences at the lexical level. Furthermore, the voiceless and voiced stops in Eastern Kammu cause smaller F0 perturbations in the following vowel than might be expected for a language undergoing tonogenesis. The significance of these results for tonogenesis is discussed, as well as their relevance for the notion of ‘tone language’.

The past decade or so has seen increasing interest in prosodic research, and remarkable progress has been made in the study of accent and intonation, both empirical and theoretical. Research in Japanese intonation is no exception in this respect, as evidenced by such works as Poser (1984) and Beckman & Pierrehumbert (1986), among others, which have developed theoretical discussions on many interesting phonological issues on the basis of their own experimental evidence.

Focusing on weight-insensitive binary stress systems, the article presents an approach to metrical stress that is more restrictive than standard approaches and more accurate in its predictions. The proposal's restrictiveness derives from a set of constraints and structural assumptions that run counter to prevailing theories' fundamental principles. For example, the proposed account assumes strict succession between prosodic categories, ensuring that syllables are exhaustively parsed into feet. It tolerates improper bracketing of prosodic categories, allowing feet to overlap and to share entries on the metrical grid. Finally, it makes the foot–stress relationship violable, allowing feet to remain stressless under appropriate rankings. The article examines each of these assumptions and demonstrates how they combine to more accurately predict attested typologies.

This paper addresses theoretical issues confronting cross-height harmony systems through an experimental study of Kinande, a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Using a combination of acoustic analysis and lingual ultrasound imaging, we evaluate previous proposals concerning the phonetic correlates of the harmonic vowel feature and the transparency of low vowels. Results indicate that (i) although a multivalued scalar acoustic feature in F1/F2 space is not adequate to distinguish all vowel categories in Kinande, the cross-height feature does correlate acoustically with F1, (ii) the cross-height feature of Kinande involves systematic tongue-root articulations and (iii) low vowels in Kinande are not neutral to harmony in the way reported in earlier work, but exhibit significant and systematic tongue-root advancement and retraction according to the dictates of harmony.

The goal of this article is to contribute to our understanding of glides – their properties and distribution in underlying and surface representations, the range and the features of their various phonetic manifestations, and their role in the assignment of syllable structure and stress. Spanish provides a rich opportunity for carrying out this study because of the special properties of high vocoids in this language, which are systematically realised as glides in particular contexts: they can function as both onsets and rhymes; they can occur in prepeak, peak and postpeak position; up to four can occur in a row; and they take on a wide range of surface realisations.

In the pursuit of our goal, we confront a problem in Spanish phonology that has tantalised investigators for the better part of this century, and rightly continues to do so. The conundrum involves the two sets of phonetic segments we transcribe as [i j y [barred dotless j] ž jˇ] and [u w γw gw] (articulatory descriptions and feature characterisations are given below). Classical structuralist studies, and some current analyses as well, see the problem as the taxonomic exercise of assigning each of these segments to a particular ‘phoneme’ or ‘underlying segment’. Our study includes the notion of phonemic inventory, but considers it as only one of many intersecting issues involved in the attempt to elucidate aspects of the mental representations that native Spanish speakers employ in their phonological computations. We undertake to raise the level of discourse concerning the problem at hand not only by redefining it but also by enlarging the set of data and descriptive issues brought to bear on it and by situating the discussion in a rich theoretical context.

A fundamental observation of phonological theory is that, out of the rich sound signal of speech, a small subset of phonetic properties is contrastive in any given language. Standardly, this observation is captured by excluding the non-distinctive phonetic properties from some levels of representation, yielding an abstract categorical representation of the contrasts among the speech sounds. Universally non-contrastive features have generally been assumed to be unspecified throughout the phonological component; thus, for example, Keating (1984) and Lombardi (1991) have argued against inclusion of particular laryngeal features in phonological representation on the grounds that they are never contrastive. Language-particular non-contrastive features have generally been assumed to be unspecified only in underlying representation and early stages of the derivation (e.g. Kiparsky 1982, Archangeli 1984, 1988, Archangeli & Pulleyblank 1986, 1994, Steriade 1987, Clements 1988). Moreover, since the discovery of extensive language-particular gradient alternations, it has standardly been assumed that a subsequent phonetic component is needed, to fill in gradient and universally non-contrastive properties (e.g. Pierrehumbert 1980, Keating 1990; but see Pierrehumbert 1994 for an attack on this view of the phonetics–phonology interface). This model is schematised in Fig. 1.

This paper is about opaque interactions between phonological processes in the two senses defined by Kiparsky (1971, 1973) and discussed in much recent work on the topic, most notably McCarthy (1999) : underapplication opacity, whereby a process appears to have failed to apply in expected contexts on the surface, and overapplication opacity, whereby a process appears to have applied in unexpected contexts on the surface. Specifically, I demonstrate that there are three distinct types of overapplication opacity in addition to the only case discussed and properly categorised as such in the literature, counterbleeding. The analysis of each type of opacity in terms of rule-based serialism and in terms of Optimality Theory is discussed, emphasising the strengths and weaknesses of the two frameworks in each case.