A Perceptual Approach to Consonant Deletion in Late West Saxon

A Perceptual Approach to Consonant Deletion in Late West Saxon

  One goal of this study is to explore the characteristics of deletion in consonant sequences that occurred in late West Saxon (lWS) from a perceptual perspective. In many of the recent studies, speech perception is highlighted as a factor of shaping sound systems as well as morpheme structures in various languages. The perceptually weak segment and contrast may be avoided by enhancing the contrast or by sacrificing it. In this study, it will be addressed that consonant deletion in lWS is motivated by perceptual factors. The other goal of this study is to provide a formal analysis of the perceptual account proposed in this study. It will be shown that the perceptual requirements can be integrated in the grammar in the form of constraints imposing that only salient segments surface or ones that militate against perceptually weak segments. Deletion in lWS is driven by the perception-based constraints interacting with faithfulness constraints and other types of markedness constraints.