A ‘scattered’ rule in Swiss German

The rule of o -lowering in Swiss German, previously discussed in Kiparsky 1968, is shown both to precede and follow umlaut in some dialects, depending on the specific phonological environment involved. Although this might force one to postulate two lowering rules rather than one, some evidence is given for the unity of the rule. It is hypothesized that ‘rule simplifications’ of the type which result in spread of a rule to new items act like ‘rule additions’ in that they take place at the bottom of the phonological component. A direct counter-example from Demers 1972 is considered and dismissed. Finally, some of the formal consequences of this phenomenon for diachronic and synchronic analysis are explored.