In some Languages , / s / is a Vowel

It has long been known that, in clusters, /s/ fails to respect the phonotactic constraints that hold of other obstruents. For example, while branching onsets must rise in sonority in the vast majority of languages, no such requirement holds of /s/-initial clusters. In fact, the optimal sC cluster across languages is /s/+stop in shape (Goad 2011). Although this would appear to be perceptual suicide for a regular obstruent, what makes /s/ different is that it has robust cues for place and manner, which ensures its perceptibility regardless of what it is adjacent to (Wright 2004, Toda, Maeda & Honda 2010). Unlike other obstruents, then, /s/ does not need to ‘lean on’ an adjacent sonorant to be heard. Although the perceptual properties of /s/ enable it to occur relatively freely, this observation only goes part way toward explaining its unusual distribution (Goad 2011, 2012). Indeed, in research that adopts an articulated view of the syllable, the unusual behaviour of /s/ has been captured by assigning it some special status: treating it as an appendix in sC/Cs clusters (see Vaux & Wolfe 2009); as a coda preceded by an empty nucleus in (initial) sC clusters (following Kaye 1992); or as part of a complex segment in /s/+stop clusters (e.g. van de Weijer 1996). None of these proposals contests the position that /s/ is an obstruent. In contrast, we defend the view that /s/ can be a vowel –a strident vowel– in some languages precisely because, like a vowel, it has strong internal cues to ensure its perceptibility. This position predicts the existence of a language where /s/ goes well beyond the appendix-like behaviour it exhibits in other languages. We demonstrate that Blackfoot, an Algonquian language spoken in southern Alberta and northwestern Montana, is such a language. The extent of the unusual behaviour that /s/ displays in Blackfoot can be briefly exemplified as follows. In addition to the cross-linguistically common pattern where word-initial [s] can be followed by a consonant, we find [ss] in this same position in Blackfoot (e.g. [sstamat °sisa] ‘Tether him to the stake!’ (D229). In medial position, both [s] and [ss] can be sandwiched between consonants (e.g. [áakokstakiwa] ‘She will count’ (G79), [itápsskonakiwaik °si] ‘(My friend) shot at them’ (G50)); and medial [sss], as well as [ss], can be preceded or followed by a consonant if a flanking vowel appears at the other edge (e.g. [stámsssáakonoosa] ‘Try to recognize her!’ (D166); [ínikátoʔkatsiiwa anníisska óssska] ‘he imitated his son-in-law’ (D61)). As will be shown in the analysis to follow, these unusual examples can be accounted for if, comparable to other vowels in Blackfoot, /s/ is underlyingly monomoraic (like /i/) or bimoraic (like /i:/), in addition to being non-moraic (like /y/). Depending on its position in the string, moraic /s/ will surface as a syllable head and/or coda, sometimes with links to preceding or following onsets as well. None of this, we argue, has to be stipulated: the segmental context in which /s/ occurs determines its realization. Our analysis builds on earlier work on Blackfoot: Derrick (2006) states that Blackfoot /s/ “sometimes acts like a vowel” and Denzer-King (2009:51) proposes that “/s/ is inherently moraic, and can act as a syllable nucleus”. However, it differs from both of these earlier works in clear and substantive ways, some of which will be discussed in this paper (see further Goad & Shimada 2014).