Deriving sonority from the structure, not the other way round.

What is it about?

This paper aims to show that sonority-based generalizations on consonant phonotactics should directly follow from representations, not from stipulations on representations such as the commonly accepted licensing or government statements. It is argued that (i) consonants and vowels are universally segregated, and (ii) involve two parallel Onset-Nucleus sequences – one on the C-plane, the other on the V-plane – (iii) which may differ in length. It is shown how the major sonority categories, and thereby the phonotactic constraints based on these categories, naturally result from how the two ONON sequences are synchronized if the one on the C-plane is longer than the one on the V-plane.

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