Lee, Minkyung. 2021. Yucatec spirantization revisited. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 27.2. 229-249. When a consonant abuts another consonant in a cluster, the first consonant C₁ tends to be spirantized in the language of Yucatec Maya. Interestingly, the presence or absence of C₁-spirantization is attributed to CC-homorganicity, i.e. the same place of articulation. The data involving C₁-spirantization are categorized into two types: one is a C₁-stop homorganic to the following consonant C₂, and the other is a homorganic C₁-affricate to C₂. For the former, a C₁-stop consistently turns into a glottal fricative [h], not ^*[ʔ] or ^*[s]. For the latter, however, the C₁-affricate emerges as [s] (^*[h]). Here asymmetry of C₁-stop vs. C₁-affricate is observed, i.e. [h] vs. [s], respectively. Under CC-homorganicity, C₁-spirantization results from the interaction of OCP[Stop] and OCP[PL]. However, when CCs are non-homorganic to each other, C₁ is not spirantized at all. Dep[Cont], re-ranked over OCP[Stop], entirely blocks any alternation to a spirant ^*[h] or ^*[s]. Without the aid of either Local Conjunction of Constraints (LCC) or Sympathy Theory as adopted in Fukazawa’s (2001) parallel OT account, the co-work of OCP-type constraints and Max/Dep faithfulness constraints guarantees a simpler and more accurate analysis. (Daegu University, Professor)

Keywords: CC-(non-)homorganicity, C₁-spirantization, OCP, Max/Dep, OT

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