STRICTURE AND NASAL PLACE ASSIMILATION

Theories of feature organization typically treat stricture features li ke [continuant], [consonantal] and [approximant] as independent of pla ce of articulation features. The best argument for this view centers o n [continuant] and facts of nasal place assimilation - in particular, instances of nasal place assimilation to fricatives, where the nasal a ppears to remain a stop. However, a closer look at nasal place assimil ation provides a strong argument against this standard view: across la nguages, place assimilation to fricatives is highly disfavored in comp arison to assimilation to stops, and occurring nasal-fricative cluster s behave like affricates. I show how a theory in which [continuant] is place-dependent can explain these facts, exploiting the notion of str ucture preservation. The treatment of stricture proposed brings featur e geometry more in line with models based on facts of phonetics and vo cal tract anatomy, e.g., the gestural model of Browman and Goldstein.