Buriat dorsal epenthesis is not reproduced with novel morphemes

Abstract

In Buriat, the consonant realized contextually as dorsal or uvular alternates with zero at stem- suffix boundaries. This alternation has been analyzed as phonological epenthesis and has been known as a challenge to the existing theories of phonological markedness. The analysis of this alternation has also been debated. This paper presents new fieldwork and experimental evidence addressing the ways in which the reported epenthesis pattern is generalized to new environments. The results do not fully support the phonological insertion account of the alternation. An alternative analysis of Buriat dorsal-zero alternation in terms of floating features is proposed

Keywords

• phonology
• epenthesis
• dorsal
• buriat