Syllable Reduction in Ye’kwana: Morphologized Phonology

Abstract

In syllable reduction, the vowel of a nonfinal syllable deletes (… CV.CV …), resulting in the creation of a consonant cluster (… C.CV …) where the first consonant of such a cluster can be said to be phonetically simplified with respect to the original consonant. Ye’kwana presents some unique features of syllable reduction: (i) attested thus far only at morpheme boundaries, alternation of reducing syllables occurs here within a single morpheme; (ii) reduction is conditioned by what could be analyzed as vowel initial suffixes. This latter phenomenon deviates from the patterns found in other Cariban languages and appears to violate explanations given in terms of syllable structure constraints. I discuss the problems in generating a synchronic phonological analysis to model the resultant apparent counterexamples, and then I demonstrate that this apparent violation is historically consistent with the overall pattern, but that a late sound change has eliminated the onset consonant from the suffix.