Deviating from identity: syntagmatic constraints in Xhosa nasal assimilation and palatalisation

Abstract

In Pulleyblank (1997) it is demonstrated that the process of nasal-assimilation is better explained by Optimality Theory (OT) than by derivational rules. It is further demonstrated that universal constraints such as Identity Cluster Constraints (ICC) and Faithfulness (FAITH) play a major role in determining the optimal outputs in nasal-obstruent compounds and that languages differ in the way they rank FAITH and ICC. Some languages achieve the desired outputs by ranking FAITH over and above ICC whereas others achieve the desired results by doing the converse. In this paper I give an Optimality account of nasal assimilation and palatalisation in Xhosa and demonstrate that both processes are achieved by ranking ICC above FAITH. Also, I argue that for nasal- obstruent compounds ICC refers to a sequence of consonants that are identical in place of articulation while for palatalisation ICC refers to a sequence of consonants that are identical in the manner in which the body of the tongue is raised toward the roof of the mouth during articulation, i.e. [+HIGH].