Formal analysis demonstrates the non-vowel triggers of palatalisation patterns in Czech phonology, suggesting new insights into phonological representations.
We discuss three patterns of palatalisation in Czech, each of which is associated with certain suffixes. The data suggest that the trigger of palatalisation is not the initial vowel of these suffixes, but different sets of floating melodic features. We provide a formal analysis of the palatalisation patterns, as well as of the internal structure of the Czech phoneme inventory, in terms of Element Theory and strict CV. This allows us to straightforwardly model their lateral (leftward) effect, as well as some peculiar behaviour in the context of labials and the lateral . Besides Element Theory and strict CV, we argue that this analysis provides further support to a substance-free view of phonology, in which phonological representations do not necessarily have a universal, fixed phonetic implementation.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Cavirani et al. (2026) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: