| Abstract: | This paper deals with epenthesis in Alguerese, which is the Catalan variety spoken in the Sardinian town of Alghero (Italy). Alguerese uses two different vowel epentheses: [a] at the word level and [i] between words, each of them appearing in a different phonological context, not determined by assimilation. It thus challenges parallel, monostratal approaches to epenthesis as well as the claim that, in epenthesis, except for assimilatory environments, the same default vowel is always inserted. We offer a parallel OT analysis of these facts and show that the selection of one or the other vowel is not arbitrary but is driven by prominence (in line with work by de Lacy 2002, Uffmann 2004, 2005). |
