Deletion, insertion, and symmetrical identity

The facts concerning the distribution of [ ̈] in Eastern Massachusetts and other dialects of English have resisted explanatorily adequate analysis primarily because they involve the insertion of [ ̈], a generally unexpected epenthetic consonant. The fact that underlying [ ̈] is also deleted in a complementary set of environments is clearly relevant, as originally noted by Vennemann (1972), but no synchronic analysis of these facts to date has satisfactorily explained this connection. I present here an analysis of the facts of Eastern Massachusetts English within Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky 1993) that establishes the relevant connection in an explanatory way. Crucial aspects of the proposed analysis provide support for the view that featural faithfulness constraints are symmetrical IDENT[Ä] constraints, as originally proposed by McCarthy & Prince (1995).