Asymmetric variation

Abstract

The free combination of independent phonological events is (implicitly) assumed by and built into the mechanisms of phonological models. Phonological variation occurring in independent dimensions applies orthogonally. In the possessive paradigms of Hungarian nouns this fails to apply. Suffixes may vary according to front/back harmony and being yod-initial, so we expect four variants for stems that vary in both dimensions. All four are attested if the suffix vowel is high: hotɛl-jyk%juk%yk%uk ‘their hotel’, but one allomorph is systematically missing if the suffix vowel is low: hotɛl-jɛ%jɑ%ɛ, *hotɛl-ɑ ‘his/her hotel’. We explain the gap by constraints requiring the uniformity of harmonic suffix behaviour, the quality of suffix-initial vowels, and the syllabic affiliation of stem-final consonants within the paradigm.

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