Weak Edges and Final Geminates in Swiss German

Abstract

A fundamental property of geminate consonants, geminates for short, is that they contribute to syllable weight in a similar manner than does vowel length. This property is expressed directly in a theory that treats geminates as consonants associated with an underlying mora (Prince 1980, McCarthy & Prince 1986). This paper defends the view that underlying moraicity is in fact the only distinguishing characteristic of geminates. Such a treatment is more restrictive than a theory that sees geminates as double consonants, since it predicts that geminates do not have two ‘halves’ that can be manipulated independantly. For example in a theory which considers geminates double consonants, extrametricality could affect only one of the pair. This is exactly the approach taken by Levin (1989), in work on noun lengthening in Ponapean, arguing that the moraic theory of geminates is inadequate.Virtually the same phenomenon occurs in Swiss German. Analyzing these cases within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince &Smolensky 1993, henceforth P&S), gives a rather different picture however. The treatment of geminates as underlyingly moraic consonants makes exactly the right predictions. In addition, the analysis has consequences for the application of extrametricality. Extrametricality is abandoned, and replaced by a much more restrictive notion of ‘edge weakening’. Finally the moraic conception of geminates is argued to give a better account of the overall distribtion of geminates.