Discontiguous reduplication in a local variety of Malay

Discontiguous partial reduplication patterns, in which a string of segments in the reduplicant corresponds with a discontiguous string of segments in the base, have been observed in various languages in the Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic families. Several such patterns show a preference for the anchoring of the segments at both edges of the base. I propose that edge-anchoring reduplication, though typologically rare, is the result of natural interaction between fundamental phonological constraints, specifically when CONTIG-BR is ranked below constraints on reduplicant size. Support for my proposal is offered from Ulu Muar Malay, whose edge-anchoring reduplication pattern is, I argue, the result of prosodic correspondence requirements, and not the result of segmental prominence at both edges (contra Nelson 2003).