Rounded back vowels preservation in consonantal contexts. C-V licensing

This article analyses the distribution of the vocalic properties in the phonological domain of the stressed nucleus and the interactions with the melodic content of the adjacent consonants. The phenomena we examine include metaphony and [u] propagation and preservation in pre-tonic position in Southern Italian varieties. These processes provide evidence for rethinking the notion of licensing in the terms of an assimilatory mechanism that makes the prosodic domain of the stressed nucleus interpretable. In this sense, metaphony, [u] propagation and other types of assimilation targeting the stressed nucleus are implementation of the same mechanism whereby the stressed nucleus legitimates the sequence by realizing (some of) its phonological properties. In some cases, metaphony or propagations apply only in the context of a velar or labial consonant, suggesting that the same [U] element characterizes labiality and velarity in consonants and vowels and that also consonants are involved in fixing the licensing domain. A revised GP approach is pursued in which prosodic structures are dealt with as the direct manifestation of the phonological content of the segments; besides, we propose a low frequency resonance element to account for the vowel raising/ lowering processes.