Dismantling syllable structure

Abstract

By listing some empirical evidence and introducing theoretical considerations,this paper argues for the idea that the phonological skeleton is made up ofstrictly alternating C and V positions. The model advocated here claims thatno two consonants and no two vowels are ever adjacent inthe phonological representationif adjacency is defined at the level of the skeleton. This is rather counterintuitiveunless one accepts the possibility of empty skeletal positions. If so, theclaim acquires a new meaning: whenever adjacent consonants or adjacent vowels(that is to say long vowels or diphthongs, besides the obvious case of hiatus)are encountered their representation will involve an intervening empty vocalicor consonantal position, respectively. Accordingly, the first part of thepaper shows that the acceptance of empty skeletal positions is a viable ideaand, if looked at from a non-Indo-European vantage point, it is in fact thenull hypothesis. The second part aims at demonstrating that the argumentssupporting the status of the syllabic constituent coda are rather weak, infact, the traditional syllable structure, incorporating an onset, a nucleusand a coda, can be dismantled in favour of a simpler model involving onlyconsonantal and vocalic skeletal positions.