Resolutions of extrasyllabic ity in Slovak

This article argues that an enlightening analysis of the complicated distribution of consonants in Slovak can be given by making use of present-day theories of syllable structure. In particular, it is shown that Slovak makes use of a variety of means to save extrasyllabic consonants. The analysis also lends support to the hypothesis of continuous syllabification, and to the distinction between three types of phonological rule: cyclic, postcyclic, and postlexical rules. In this article we investigate the various ways in which extrasyllabicity of consonants is resolved in Slovak. Three questions are central in our study: i. what kinds of mechanisms are used to resolve extrasyllabicity? ii. how is syllable structure assigned? iii. at what stage of the derivation does the resolution of extrasyllabicity take place? With regard to (i) we will demonstrate that Slovak draws generously from the repertoire of universally available mechanisms. In fact it exploits a variety of options: