Re: THEORY: Ray on ambisyllabicity

Dirk:
> Another way to distinguish an ambisyllabic consonant from a geminate
> is to see if processes of lenition can apply. In English, intervocalic
> /t/ is often taken to be ambisyllabic in words like 'atom' (i.e.,
> following a stressed lax vowel), and these /t/s (among others) undergo
> flapping. Geminates are resistant to lenition processes (a property
> dubbed inalterability).
>
> So I don't think that ambisyllabicity and covert gemination are
> equivalent theories, since there are processes which can tease apart
> the difference.
And indeed the processes of lenition most certainly do apply.
Furthermore, different lenitional processes characteristic of onsets and
processes characteristic of codas can apply simultaneously, as in
my earlier ex. "Patrick" [pa?SRIk], "statue" [sta?S@u] with glottaling
characteristic of /t/ in coda and affrication characteristic of /t/
in onset before /r/ or /j/.

--And.