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Non-optimal onsets in Chamicuro: an inventory maximised in coda position

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2002

Steve Parker
Steve Parker
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst and SIL International
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Abstract

The widely attested onset/coda asymmetry involves a situation in which the inventory of phonemes in syllable-final position in a particular language is a subset of those which contrast in onsets. The inverse of this pattern has been claimed to never occur (Goldsmith 1990, Beckman 1998). However, this prediction is falsified by Chamicuro, a Peruvian language in which /h/ and /[glottal plosive]/ are systematically restricted to coda position. Since no permutation of all known constraints can account for this unusual distribution, a new constraint is necessary. I propose that we invoke HAVEPLACE and subcategorise it for onsets. This positional markedness filter permits placeless (laryngeal) consonants to surface in codas, but blocks them in onsets. A beneficial side-effect of this analysis is that it preserves the onset/coda asymmetry while allowing /[glottal plosive]/ and /h/ to be the only principled exceptions to it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 2001 , pp. 361 - 386
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper has benefited significantly from the input of several University of Massachusetts colleagues, especially John McCarthy, Lisa Selkirk, Jen Smith and Paul de Lacy. I am also indebted to the associate editor and several other anonymous reviewers for very lucid insights which have improved the analysis and presentation. None of these people should be assumed to agree with the conclusions presented here. Finally, I dedicate this article to the two Chamicuro speakers who patiently taught me their language: Gregorio Orbe Caro and Alfonso Patow Chota. To everyone my thanks.