Phonological processes typically affect natural classes of sounds, with the members of such classes sharing some phonetic property to the exclusion of other sounds. Recent typological work shows that not all phonological classes are natural, however (Mielke 2008). This paper considers the class… read more
Nivkh, a genetic isolate spoken in the Russian Far East, displays a pattern of stress-dependent height restrictions in a linguistic area where tongue-root harmony is prevalent. We argue that the Nivkh pattern derives from an earlier tongue-root system. This system developed into a height-based… read more
Typological work shows that voiced fricatives like /β ð/ occur more often without their voiceless counterparts than with them, contrary to what would be expected on the basis of markedness relations between voicing and obstruents. This paper suggests that many of the offending fricatives are more… read more