Introduction The project presented here seeks to explain observed regularities in the direction of place assimilation. The best known among these is the fact that assimilation proceeds regressively in intervocalic clusters composed of alveolars, palato-alveolars, labials or velars. This fact is consistent with a variety of interpretations, some of which are discussed below. However the range of analyses narrows down drastically once we observe that assimilation is consistently progressive in clusters composed of retroflexes and alveolars. These two observations are schematically illustrated below. Instances of each type are presented in the body of the paper. (1) Regressive assimilation in VC 1 C 2 V; C 1 ,C 2 {(Palato)-Alveolar, Labial, Velar} (a) {Alveolar, Labial} anpa -> ampa; amta -> anta (b) {Velar, Labial} aNpa -> ampa; amka -> aNka (c) {Alveolar, Velar} anka ->
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