Underspecification and the Distribution of Gottschee German Laterals

Abstract

The underlying lateral in Gottschee German has both front [l] and back [ɫ] allophones. I argue that the distribution of these lateral allophones is predictable if one adopts a model of coronal underspecification put forth by Rice (1994). I also posit a non-structure preserving dissimilation. This provides an argument against the assertion that dissimilations must be structure preserving (Ohala 1993; Kiparsky 1985; Hall 2008, 2009).