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Laryngeal markedness and aspiration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2006

Bert Vaux
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Bridget Samuels
Affiliation:
Harvard University

Abstract

We argue that the common phonological assumptions that (i) plain voiceless consonants are less marked than voiceless aspirates and (ii) the unmarked two-way stop system opposes unaspirated voiced and voiceless members are incorrect. A wide range of phonetic and internal and external phonological evidence suggests instead that (i) the maximally unmarked single-series stop is unspecified for laryngeal features and (ii) the unmarked two-way stop system opposes aspirated and unaspirated stops, and the aspirated series may be the unmarked member of this set.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented by the first author as ‘Systemic vs. feature-based markedness in laryngeal contrasts’ at the LSA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in January 2002. Thank you to Fred Eckman, Morris Halle, Greg Iverson, Alec Marantz, Mickey Noonan, Keren Rice, Catherine Ringen and Joe Salmons for helpful comments.