| Abstract: | This project examines the behavior of doubly-articulated stop consonants both in a linguistic typology and in individual languages. Doubly-articulated stop consonants are a subtype of complex stops that contain both a [dorsal] and a [labial] place of articulation. The central premise of this project is that while assumptions about complex are made, no specific reference to complex stops individually are made in CON, in an Optimality Theoretic (Prince and Smolensky 1993) system. Markedness constraints are strigently defined based on a universal hierarchy. Complex stops are more marked than simple stops because of their multiple place features. The constraint banning all places is a de facto constraint militating against complexity, and is necessary in the system, contra markedness proposals of leniency (cf. Gouskova 2003). The constraints must be stringently related and not in a fixed universal hierarchy for the same reason. The reduction of complex stops to simple stops is governed by this same markedness hierarchy, such that /KP/ can reduce to [P] in certain languages, but never to [K], as dorsals are more marked than labials (de Lacy 2006). The typology of this system is thoroughly analyzed in modern rigorous OT, and then the system is augmented to capture alternations in both Amele and Dagbani. |
