Syllable-initial consonants matter in Arrernte

What is it about?

It is a widely held belief that all languages in the world have syllables of the CV (consonant-vowel) type. This is not however uncontested, with Arrernte being the leading alleged counter-example. We show that in fact Arrernte too not only is compatible with CV syllables, but in fact supports them. Our evidence comes primarily from (morpho-)phonology and secondarily from other sources, including language acquisition, musicology, and phonetics.

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Why is it important?

We show how in-depth 'old-fashioned' phonological analysis and examination of multi-faceted empirical evidence can be used to test language universals. We argue that the universality of CV-syllables is valid, despite claims against it.