Positional Markedness in Vowel Harmony

1. Introduction A key issue in research on vowel harmony is the role of positional privilege. Vowels in prominent positions are frequently granted a special status in their function as triggers or targets in harmony. Studies of harmony patterns in which linguistically-prominent positions display a unique triggering role have identified positional faithfulness as a source of privilege in strong locations (Beckman 1998, Walker to appear). In these cases, the feature specification is consistently preserved in the strong position. This paper focuses on the distinct set of patterns in which the target vowel resides in a prominent site, that is, where a strong position exhibits alternations via attraction of features. Phenomena of this kind cannot be attributed to positional faithfulness, because when active, it makes the contrary prediction that strong positions will resist change. This paper studies strong target alternations in two height harmonies. The first is the case of Veneto Italian, where harmony triggered by a suffix vowel targets a stressed vowel (1a) (Maiden 1991). Only high vowels trigger the harmony , as evident by comparing (1b-c). The second case, in (2), is a height transfer in Esimbi which targets initial syllables (Hyman 1988). In this pattern the height feature of a non-initial root vowel is transferred to an initial prefix vowel, and the non-initial vowel is neutralized to high. (1) Veneto Italian a. /tornevi/ à [torn'vi] Ôreturn (2 sg. imp. ind.)Õ b. /tornevo/ à [tornŽvo] Ôreturn (1 sg. imp. ind.)Õ c. /torneva/ à [tornŽva] Ôreturn (3 sg. imp. ind.)Õ (2) Esimbi a. /u-to/ à [otu] Ôinsult (inf.)Õ b. /u-rE/ à [ • ri] 'daub (inf.)' Building on a proposal by Zoll (1996, 1998), I argue that such targeting of strong positions comes about through the activity of positive positional marked-ness constraints, which call for affiliation of features with linguistically-strong sites. In this paper I argue that all height features are subject to licensing. However , licensing requirements are violable, and their conflict and interplay with other phonological demands can produce different outcomesÑresults felicitous 2 R ACHEL WALKER with an optimality-theoretic approach. Two outcomes are analyzed here: (i) licensing restricted to feature specifications regarded as less marked ([+high]; Veneto), and (ii) licensing of more marked specifications ([-high]; Esimbi). In the course of examining these patterns, some additional matters of theoretical interest are explored. One area concerns some intriguing root-affix asymmetries presented by the harmonies under scrutiny. In Veneto, affixes are …