Speaker: Suyeon Yun (Chungnam National University)
Title: Perceptual similarity and repair choice in Mongolian loanwords
Time: Tuesday October 13th, 5pm – 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831
Abstract: This study examines how perceptual similarity shapes the repair of initial consonant clusters in 355 Mongolian loanwords. Mongolian prohibits word-initial clusters but permits many medial clusters, providing a within-language test of competing, phonotactically acceptable repairs. Three patterns emerge: vowel insertion sites follow intensity patterns more closely than sonority; metathesis is restricted to clusters with a sonorant second consonant and is favored when the initial source syllable is unstressed, provided the resulting structure is permissible; and /s/-stop clusters consistently undergo prothesis, whereas /?/-stop clusters allow both prothesis and internal epenthesis. A P-map-based Optimality Theory analysis accounts for these patterns through faithfulness constraints reflecting the perceptibility of vowel insertion and segmental reordering, including differences between stressed and unstressed vowels and between the two sibilants. The study argues that perceptual similarity guides the choice among structurally acceptable repairs and that fine-grained perceptual distinctions can organize both epenthesis and metathesis within a single grammar.