Skeletal versus moraic representations in Slovak

Abstract

It is argued that compensatory vowel vocalization and the rule of Depalatalization in Slovak crucially require reference to a representation at the skeletal tier. In the former case, a consonant deletes, and simultaneously a floating melodic segment is vocalized as a short vowel. In the latter case, adacency must be established between consonants across a floating segment. Both of these facts can be straightforwardly accounted for in the X-skeletal theory but not in the moraic framework, regardless of the variant of the moraic theory.