In this paper, I provide an analysis of vowel harmony in Izi, an Igbo language spoken in the East - Central State of Nigeria. Using data from Meier, Meier, and Samuel (1975; hereafter MMB), I argue that harmony in complex verbal structures in Izi is inadequately accounted for within a level ordered model of lexical phonology (Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982, etc...), claiming instead that harmony facts are best accommodated within a non-level ordered approach (cf. Halle and Vergnaud 1987, Halle and Kenstowicz 1991; Halle, Harris, and Vergnaud 1991). In sections 1 and 2, I provide a description of the general pattern of the [ATR]-based vowel harmony system in Izi and motivate [+ATR] as the only value of the feature [ATR] present at the level of underlying representation. In section 3, data are presented demonstrating the inadequacy of a level -ordered treatment of vowel harmony in verbal structures. Finally, in section 4, I propose an alternative, non-level ordered analysis that derives the attested harmony facts via cyclic rule application at a single level. Crucially, particular morphemes in verbal structures are claimed to undergo a pass of the cyclic rules prior to concatenation, a phenomenon which I call selective cyclicity.

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One of the pillars of phonological research has been the desirability of representing phonological processes as being local in application. Locality, as a principle of the grammar, constrains the relation between the trigger and target elements of a phonological process to one of adjacency. Adjacency, within the framework of Autosegmental Phonology and Underspecification theory, consists of two varieties: tier adjacency and structural adjacency (Myers (1987)). Tier adjacency examines linear relations among elements within an isolated tier of the representation (e.g. the tonal tier), while structural adjacency examines these relations mediated through the skeletal core, which organizes and maintains the linear relations between phonemes and their constituent elements. Locality and Adjacency are not, simply the preserve of featural relations and their skeletal core. The core itself, whether viewed as C/V slots, X/X' timing slots, or Root nodes, is organized into the grander structures of the Prosodic Hierarchy (e.g. syllable, Foot, etc.) . The formation of these units is a phonological process and as such subject to the same principles. A portion of the on -going debates in metrical theory has focused on whether metrical structure, in particular Foot structure, is limited to binary constituents. Kager (1989) proposes an extreme Binarism, with all metrical structure initially being limited to binarity. Hayes (1987) and Prince (1990) only commit to a strong preference for binary Feet. Halle & Vergnaud (1987) propose a system allowing binary, ternary, and unbounded Feet. The principle of Locality with its requirement of adjacency argues for a binary -view of metrical structure where the trigger and target of the structure building process are un- metrified elements. The most serious challenge to this view is the existence of languages which employ ternary constituents, e.g. Cayuvava, Chugach Alutiiq. These languages have been cited as evidence in arguing for a theory capable of generating ternary Feet. In a framework designed to maintain strict locality surface ternary constituents must be derived from underlying binary structures. This paper proposes a solution to this problem which relies on the ternary constituent being a complex constituent composed of a binary Foot grouped with an adjacent syllable. This constituent is not a Foot, but rather a Prosodic Word. Generating an iterative ternary Prosodic Word requires a new algorithm for building metrical structure. This algorithm builds metrical constituents in an opportunistic manner. Opportunistic building creates metrical constituents as soon as possible, instead of applying one particular structure building rule across the whole string before the next rule applies. This paper examines these issues through the metrical structures of the Alutiiq dialects described by Leer (1985a). The rich and detailed work of Leer serves admirably as a base for elucidating the issues of ternarity. Unfortunately, the ramifications of these proposals beyond the issue of ternarity can only be briefly alluded to in this paper. Length constraints do not permit me to present all aspects of these proposals in the full detail they require for their justification.

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In this paper, I discuss two rules in Chilcotin (Athapaskan), both of which involve spreading of the feature [retracted tongue root] ([rtr]). The first rule is a coronal consonant harmony rule, Sibilant Assimilation, which requires that all coronal sibilants in a word agree in their specification for [rtr). The second rule, a tongue root harmony rule called Flattening, spreads [+rtr] fresh velar segments and coronal sibilants onto neighbouring vowels. Only a subset of the [+rtr] segments which trigger Flattening undergo Sibilant Assimilation. Given the structure of the feature hierarchy, the spreading of this subset in Sibilant Assimilation is impossible without violating locality. I suggest that the theory of tree geometry be modified to accomodate this problem.