A Typology of Sonority Sequences in Word-Final Consonant Clusters Open Access

Abstract

Syllable structure across languages appears to be governed by a Sonority Sequencing Principle that states that sonority must fall in syllable codas. However, this principle does not hold for all syllables in all languages. In this study, I examine the phonotactics of 178 languages in order to find the distribution of word-final biconsonantal clusters that violate this principle. I classify these languages according to the types of clusters they allow. I use this typology to demonstrate that violations of the Sonority Sequencing Principle do not occur randomly, but rather, according to an implicational relationship where the presence of violations in codas implies the presence of compliant codas. However, a language type emerges that does not follow from the Sonority Sequencing Principle. This type allows sonority plateaus of obstruents but disallows sonority plateaus of sonorants, even though these coda type violate the principle equally. Reviewing the proposals for constraint sets that model the effect of the Sonority Sequencing Principle in Optimality Theory, I conclude that the unequal treatment of these sonority plateaus is best accounted for by a universally fixed ranking between constraints on the sonority of single positions in the syllable.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 1

2. Theoretical Background.................................................................................... 3

2.1 The Sonority Sequencing Principle....................................................... 3

2.2 Exceptions to the Sonority Sequencing Principle.................................. 5

2.3 Defining Clusters................................................................................... 7

3. Challenges....................................................................................................... 11

3.1 Unary vs. Binary.................................................................................. 11

3.2 Glides: Vocalic vs. Consonantal.......................................................... 12

3.3 Fricatives: Sonorant vs. Obstruent....................................................... 12

3.4 Appendices vs. Syllabified Segments.................................................. 14

3.5 Syllabic Consonants vs. Coda Consonants.......................................... 14

3.6 Heteromorphemic vs. Tautomorphemic.............................................. 15

4. Methods........................................................................................................... 17

4.1 Data Collection and Analysis............................................................... 17

4.2 Treatment of Problematic Sequences.................................................. 18

5. Results............................................................................................................. 19

5.1 Attested Language Types..................................................................... 19

5.2 Distribution of Languages................................................................... 21

5.3 Effects of Morpheme Boundaries and Appendices.............................. 24

6. Discussion........................................................................................................ 26

6.1 Effect of the SSP.................................................................................. 26

6.2 Preference for Obstruent Clusters........................................................ 27

7. Analysis in Optimality Theory........................................................................ 29

7.1 Overview.............................................................................................. 29

7.2 Review of Previous Proposals............................................................. 31

7.2.1 Harmonic Alignment Using the Split Margin Approach......... 31

7.2.2 Local Conjunction.................................................................... 33

7.2.3 Relational Alignment............................................................... 35

7.3 Generating Type 2................................................................................ 37

7.4 Generating Type 3................................................................................ 41

8. Conclusions..................................................................................................... 44

Appendix A: Languages Without Word-final Consonant Clusters: Type 0................ 45

Appendix B: Typology of Languages with Biconsonantal Clusters.......................... 48

Appendix C: Types of Non-Transparent Sequences.................................................. 50

References................................................................................................................... 51

TABLES

Table 1. Logically possible language types................................................................. 22

Table 2. Empirically attested language types.............................................................. 23

Table 3. The distribution of languages with non-transparent (NT) sequences............ 27

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Linguistics
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Linguistics
Keyword	linguistics phonology
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Kreitman, Rina, Emory University
Committee Members	Pak, Marjorie, Emory University Zupko, Jack, Emory University

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