Adjusting to the syllable margins

Abstract

This chapter brings together data from several varieties of Catalan and Spanish with the purpose of investigating the behavior of glides (i.e., /j/ and /w/) in onsets and codas, and the way they adjust to the syllable margins. The analysis is situated within Optimality Theory and, more specifically, support is provided for the distinction proposed by Baertsch between elements which are parsed as the leftmost element in the onset (M1: Margin; 1) and elements which are syllabified as codas or as the second element in the onset (M2: Margin 2). The data indicate, though, that an explicit reference to the intersyllabic context in which M1 elements appear is sometimes required as well.