A feature geometric description of Finnish vowel harmony covering both loans and native words

Abstract Loanwords sometimes pose problems for phonological rules which otherwise cover the native vocabulary in the language. Finnish vowel harmony is a case in point. The native vocabulary is governed by a clear set of regular harmony rules for both roots and suffixes. Long loanwords, however, be they harmonic or disharmonie, typically manifest free variation in the suffixes. The existence of inter and intraspeaker suffixal variation has been well documented in both introspective studies and written experiments. In this paper, we use experimental evidence from spoken language to establish that one and the same individual indeed manifests free variation in loans. To account for this variation, we use the feature geometry of autosegmental phonology, with separate tiers for the coronal and dorsal vowels. It is further proposed that a general precedence constraint assigns primacy to the value [dorsal] in the spreading process, which precedence is absolute in the native vocabulary. In loanwords, this stipulation is suspended, and the autosegmental spreading can take place freely from one vowel place tier or another. This freedom is only restricted by the exclusively local nature of coronal spreading, which is inherently present in the native vocabulary as well. Which value actually spreads in any given word and at any given moment probably depends on factors such as rhythm, speaking style, information structure and the rate of speech.