Surface Velar Palatalization in Polish

This article investigates a palatalization process called Surface Velar Palatalization that turns /k g/ into [k j g j ] before the front vowel e. What would appear to be a trivial rule, k g k j g j /-E, turns out to be a highly complex process. The complexity is caused by several independent factors. First, Surface Velar Palatalization, k g k j g j , competes with Phonemic Velar Palatalization, k g . Second, some but not all changes are restricted to derived environments. Third, some suffixes appear to be exceptions to one type of Palatalization but not to the other type. Fourth, /x/ behaves in an ambivalent way by undergoing one but not the other type of Palatalization. Fifth, Palatalization constraints interacting with segment inventory constraints yield different results in virtually the same contexts.