Hiatus resolution in Nambya: An Optimality Theory analysis

Abstract

Vowel hiatus is prohibited in many languages. When the nominal morphology of Nambya causes vowel sequences to arise, hiatus may be resolved in one of the three ways: (i) one of the vowels may be deleted; (ii) one of the vowels may be changed into a glide; and (iii) one of the vowels may be parsed nonmoraically as a secondary articulation on the preceding consonant. This article examines these vowel hiatus resolution strategies, using Optimality Theory. Glide formation is the default strategy and when blocked by a syllable structure constraint, secondary articulation operates. In turn, when secondary articulation is blocked by phonotactic and OCP-driven constraints, elision occurs. In Nambya, the quality of the first vowel, and whether it is preceded by a consonant or not, as well as the type of the consonant preceding it determine which strategy between glide formation, secondary articulation and vowel elision repairs the vowel hiatus.