Exploring regressive voicing assimilation in English and Dutch in the framework of optimality theory

The following paper discusses one specific type of assimilation, namely regressive assimilation of voice, as it occurs in English and Dutch. The data underlying the analysis were gathered in a larger project on the production of phenomena of connected speech in EFL. In that project (reported in Simon), 15 German-speaking and an equal number of Dutch-speaking informants were asked to read out 28 English sentences. The recordings served as the basis for the study of assimilation, elision, linking, vowel reduction and juncture. The results of the test which are relevant to the purpose of the present paper are briefly discussed in section 1. In section 2, the positions in which regressive voicing assimilation can occur in English and Dutch are mentioned. This study approaches regressive voicing assimilations in English and Dutch from a constraint-based, Optimality Theoritic point of view. The basic tenets of Optimality Theory (henceforth OT) are discussed in section 3. In section 4, the possibility of analysing regressive voicing assimilation in English and Dutch within the framework of OT is explored. The phenomenon of final devoicing, which occurs in Dutch, but not in English, is discussed first. Section 5 contains the conclusion.