<OT> New Posting: ROA-757

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

ROA 757-0705

Coda Maximisation in Northwest Saamic

Patrik Bye <patrik.bye at hum.uit.no>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=757


Abstract:
The languages of the Northwest Saamic group evince a pattern of 
syllabification that maximises the complexity of the coda in a bimoraic 
stressed syllable (Kiparsky 2004). The coda maximisation requirement 
interacts with four other syllabic well-formedness constraints in a 
fixed ranking that regulates the sonority profile, quantity and 
structural complexity of the rhyme. Varying the point at which the coda 
maximisation requirement interleaves with the constraints in this fixed 
ranking generates a restrictive microtypology of coda maximisation in 
Northwest Saamic. The last part of the paper proposes to eliminate the 
stipulative fixed ordering by ranking the four syllabic well-formedness 
constraints in a proper inclusion (stringency) hierarchy (de Lacy 
2004). It is argued that syllable rhymes may be characterised as 
falling on a scale of degree of perceptual integrity (dpi) and that 
complex codas are more dispreferred when the syllable has low dpi.

Comments: To appear in Nordic Journal of Linguistics 28; Special issue 
on 'Dialects and Linguistic Theory'
Keywords: Saami, quantity, syllable structure, hypercharacterisation, 
Coda Maximisation, Optimality Theory
Areas: Phonology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=757