Asimetrías perceptivas y similitud articulatoria en la asimilación de sonoridad del catalán

Broadly speaking, assimilation leads to articulatory benefits —it diminishes the number of gestures— as well as to perceptual gains —it increases the perceptibility of the spread features. In this work we concentrate on two tangential properties of assimilatory processes while reviewing different phenomena related to voicing assimilation in Catalan. First, we will show that elements that alter their features usually appear in a less prominent position than elements that initiate the change. Second, we will show that more similar elements are more prone to interact among them. Overall, we provide new insights on the much-debated issue of voicing neutralization, within a parallel, non-serial version of Optimality Theory.