<OT> New Posting: ROA-714

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ROA 714-0205

A Metrical Analysis of Syncope in Tlingit

Seth Cable <scable at mit.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=714


Abstract:
A seemingly idiosyncratic set of verbal prefixes in Tlingit
undergo an ellipsis alternation very similar to standard
cases of syncope.  I argue for a constraint-based analysis
of this alternation, in which ellipsis results from constraints
governing metrical well-formedness.  This analysis is shown
to explain many puzzling nuances of the alternation, including
the seemingly idiosyncratic set of prefixes it applies to.
Furthermore, the metrical system proposed for Tlingit is
strikingly similar to that reported for certain Athabascan
languages, the sole difference resting in the relative rank
of two constraints.

Comments: Submitted and accepted as author's Phonology Generals paper, October 2004.
Keywords: syncope, metrical syncope, Tlingit, Athabascan, prosodic domains, syllable contact, antigemmination
Areas: Phonology,Morphology
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=714