Asymmetrical Glide Patterns in American English:The Resolution of CiV vs. Cu V Sequences

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of (American) English consonant-glide-vowel sequences, accounting for the asymmetry between [CjV] and [CwV] sequences from underlying /CiV/ and/CuV/, respectively. In underlying /CuV/ sequences, the high back vowel becomes part of an onset cluster (e.g. quote) and is subject to the restrictions imposed on other types of onset clusters. In underlying /CiV/ sequences, the high front vowel either coalesces with a following /u/ to form the diphthong [ju] as in cute or it forms a nucleus on its own with the second vowel parsed in a second syllable (i.e., Kyoto [ki.o.to]). The asymmetry is attributed to a preference for parsing high front vowels as peaks and high back vowels as margins where possible. An optimality theoretic analysis is developed which accounts for this asymmetry in the context of corresponding asymmetries in other areas of English phonology.