Geminates and Picard Pronominal Clitic Allomorphy

Abstract

In this paper, we examine five pronominal clitics in Vimeu Picard with a geminate-consonant allomorph. Assuming a doubly-linked (non-moraic) representation of geminates, we attribute the four different patterns observed to four different underlying structures serving as inputs to an OT constraint ranking. The 1sg and 2sg pronouns are singletons which are subject to gemination in one specific position, syllable structure permitting. The 3sg pronoun is a geminate which is subject to variable degemination or vowel epenthesis where there are insufficient syllable slots to accommodate it. The partitive/genitive is somewhere in between a singleton and a geminate (its UR is /nn/, where the superscript «n» represents a floating nasal; it may surface as [nn] or as [n ̃ε], depending upon where its floating nasal docks). Finally, the 3pl is neither a singleton nor a geminate underlyingly, but becomes a geminate by its first segment assimilating to its second.

Keywords

• appendix
• cross-syllabification
• degemination
• positional alignment
• stressed length- ening
• stochastic Optimality Theory