Introduction

In this chapter, I focus on the manner class. I take manner to be the head class of the segmental structure. As already discussed in Chapter 3, there are three reasons for this. Firstly, if manner is the head, a manner specification is obligatory for each segment. In syllabic head positions, segments can have only a manner specification, but not only a place or laryngeal specification. In addition, onset dependent positions only require manner distinctions, while not allowing specifications for place or laryngeal (with minimal exceptions). This suggests that manner specifications are the minimally required properties of segments. A consequence of the obligatoriness of manner is that segments that have no specification at all are excluded (‘empty segments’), which makes the system of representations highly constrained. I will discuss this consequence in § 7.2.1.1, since ‘empty segments’ (or the closely related notion of empty syllabic positions) have been proposed in various models, specifically, but not exclusively, in GP (see KLV90; Scheer (1998)). The second reason for regarding manner as the head is that manner distinctions contribute to the perceptual salience (sonority) level of segments more than place and laryngeal distinctions. One piece of evidence for this is that when segments are ranked on a sonority (or strength) scale, usually reference is mainly or exclusively made to manner properties, although the laryngeal property of voicing is also usually deemed relevant. Thirdly, manner elements are the most stable elements, resisting assimilation or harmony, albeit that they are not totally immune to such processes. In a dependency approach, obligatoriness, perceptual salience (sonority) and stability are natural traits of heads.

Following the notion of polysystematicity, I will discuss manner distinctions for each of the four syllabic positions and, where relevant, for the head (primary) and dependent (secondary) classes separately. I will first discuss the structure of segment types that are preferred in each syllabic position and then turn to the occurrence of non-preferred segment types in syllabic head positions (see § 3.2.3 on this distinction; Chapter 8 offers a systematic discussion of this notion of preference for all element classes).