This dissertation examines floating tones and tone gesture deactivation in Sierra Juarez Zapotec (SJZ), and provides an Optimality Theoretic account of tonal spreading and placement using insights from Articulatory Phonology. While the data portion of the dissertation is drawn from SJZ, the approach has broader implications for theories of tonal…

This paper analyzes linguistical features of Quiegolani Zapotec (QZ) via a combination of language-specific rules and universal constraints ordered within a constraint hierarchy that operates within a derivational phonology. A number of complex onset clusters in QZ do not follow the Sonority Sequencing Generalization discussed by J. Greenberg…

Included in the phonology are three contrastive lexical tones, a prepause syllable (as part of intonation), nine oral vowels, four nasal vowels, and many consonant clusters which differ in accordance with their distribution in reference to their place in the word: prestress, stressed syllable, and poststress. (SCC)