Notwithstanding the primacy of the CV syllable, a number of languages allow for more complex types of syllables. In particular, word-initial consonant clusters are particularly challenging for any phonological theory. In this paper it is argued that obstruent clusters may be the result of casual speech processes where the most salient/ frequent phonemes and features occurring in most pronunciation variants of a word are preserved. As a result, sibilants, being acoustically salient, tend to occur more often than other obstruents as the first member of word-initial obstruent clusters. A framework couched in Optimality Theory is presented, where a subfamily of faithfulness constraints refer to strength values stored in the underlying representation. The more salient and/or frequent a phoneme/feature is, the higher the strength value assigned to it. Finally, a number of languages are compared, arguing that their phonotactic differences may be due to the different ranking of markedness constraints and MAX-STRENGTHVALUE constraints.
This chapter offers a detailed investigation into the phonetic exponence and the phonological behaviour of the elements |U|, |I|, and |A| as used in Element Theory and related approaches. Much work has shown that the elements do not all behave the same way, suggesting that there must be a divide between place and manner elements. Further, it appears that the distribution of the place elements across different types of segments is also in some way restricted. Looking at a host of phonological phenomena, drawn from a wide range of languages, it is argued here that |U| is a property of both labials and velars, in line with Backley (2011), but contrary to earlier work. Further, |A| is argued to be a vocalic element, making its presence in consonants marked. Elemental markedness appears to be relative to position more generally, with |U| preferred word-initially and word-finally, and |I| intervocalically.
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