We discuss three patterns of palatalisation in Czech, each of which is associated with certain suffixes. The data suggest that the trigger of palatalisation is not the initial vowel of these suffixes, but different sets of floating melodic features. We provide a formal analysis of the palatalisation patterns, as well as of the internal structure of the Czech phoneme inventory, in terms of Element Theory and strict CV. This allows us to straightforwardly model their lateral (leftward) effect, as well as some peculiar behaviour in the context of labials and the lateral . Besides Element Theory and strict CV, we argue that this analysis provides further support to a substance-free view of phonology, in which phonological representations do not necessarily have a universal, fixed phonetic implementation.

This article discusses data from a Romance variety spoken in the linguistic region of France referred to as the Croissant. When roots in this language exhibit a phonologically problematic right edge, the problem is treated differently depending on whether the stem is nominal or verbal. We propose that this unequal treatment reflects an underlying distinction: seemingly unsuffixed verbs are in fact underlyingly suffixed, whereas nouns are truly unsuffixed. The final consonant of the verbal stem is therefore not final underlyingly. It is claimed that this solution is preferable to relying on distinct grammars for nouns and verbs or assuming transderivational relations between words. The article also clarifies the purview of Strict CV, the framework that it is couched in. Strict CV is a theory of representations that defines well- and ill-formed structures, some of which are universal. It needs to be complemented by a theory of computation.

Typology establishes three degrees of metrical strength. Foot-based theories designate the intermediate degree as that of unparsed syllables, i.e. syllables that are not part of a foot. However, this denotation of parsing mispredicts massively; moreover, there is no real reason why such unparsed syllables should be of intermediate prosodic strength (as opposed to the weakest or strongest). This paper presents an alternative account in Strict CV metrics (Ulfsbjorninn 2014, Faust & Ulfsbjorninn 2018). The correct three-way hierarchy follows from the basic operation of the theory, namely incorporation, whereby one nucleus becomes prominent by incorporating metrical significance from another nucleus. Examples come first from the more classical cases of Dutch and English and then from three test-cases provided by unrelated languages: St’át’imcets (Lillooet Salish), Burmese, and Tiberian Hebrew. No appeal is made to the notion of parsing.

The ambition of this article is to provide a phonological account of an intricate pattern of lenition and gemination in Campidanese Sardinian. The data show two things: that a model of phonology needs some way of showing strength and weakness as positional effects and that neither can be reliably understood in phonetic terms. In this analysis, the discovery procedure does not depend on raw phonetic facts, but rather on a rich model of abstract phonological representations. These representations are of two kinds, melodic and prosodic, and they allow for a substance-free phonological analysis of lenition and fortition in Campidanese that is not confronted by the difficulties inherent in surface-oriented approaches.