Introduction

We have introduced three cases of phonological alternation in three languages in this unit. These three cases of alternation, though varying in complexity, are limited to variations in a specific part of a morphologically complex form. Chapter 5 is concerned with affix alternation in English. The alternations involve the stems in Tibetan and Tonkawa. In this chapter, we introduce yet another case of phonological alternation. This case is somewhat different and more complex in that the components of a morphologically complex form all alternate and these alternations seem to interact. The data for this case of phonological alternation come from Yawelmani, a native American language spoken in California. The puzzling and interesting aspect of Yawelmani alternations is centered round a set of forms that appear to be exceptions to an otherwise straightforward process of vowel harmony. We show that we can come to an understanding of these exceptional forms through phonological analysis.

This chapter has four objectives. First, it continues to strengthen your ability to analyze increasingly more complex phonological alternations, phenomena that involve pattern interactions. Second, it extends your understanding of the two types of linguistic arguments – predictability and simplicity – that linguists use to evaluate competing analyses. In addition, this chapter introduces a third type of linguistic argument, naturalness. We show that all three types of linguistic arguments play a role in determining the final analysis of Yawelmani. Third, this chapter introduces some of the distinctive features linguists use to classify vowels. It reinforces your understanding of distinctive features and highlights the role they play in capturing the similarity in seemingly unrelated alternations. Finally, this chapter introduces the concept of rule ordering. We show that the different processes in Yawelmani interact in specific ways and that such pattern interactions can be formally expressed through rule ordering, that is, by arranging the rules to apply in a chronological sequence.