Abstract
This paper investigates the segment inventory of Serbian from both an articulatory and a phonological perspective, and it proposes a straightforward phonological analysis of both the inventory and the morpho-phonological process of iotization. The analysis is couched in terms of the Parallel Structures Model of feature geometry (Morén 2003a, b, c).
Highlights
Standard Serbian has an interesting set of consonants and consonantvowel interactions
We must explain the morphophonologically conditioned changes of place resulting from iotization – in particular, the odd transformation of velars into apical palatals and the addition of a palatal lateral following labial segments
We will show that the Parallel Structure Model of feature geometry (Morén 2003a, b, c) provides a straightforward analysis of the inventory facts, and of the puzzling consonant alternations
Summary
Standard Serbian has an interesting set of consonants and consonantvowel interactions It has a fairly extensive set of palatals and three sets of affricates, two of which are found at the same place of articulation but are articulatorily different in laminal versus apical. The two palatal stop series (palatal affricates, descriptively) are differentiated by the presence of only a vowel coronal feature (realized as non-laminal) versus both a vowel and a consonant coronal feature (realized as laminal). This analysis provides an account of the segment inventory and iotization using a very economical feature set, but it provides an account of the mapping of phonological feature specifications to otherwise surprising articulations. Two further results are that it explains the somewhat puzzling morpho-phonological effects of the palatal consonants on the realization of mid vowels, and it accounts for an interesting dialect split
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