In all phonological models of syllable structure, 'sonority', and, in particular, one of its main correlates — voice(lessness) — are intrinsic properties of segments, as opposed, for example, to length, which also plays a major role in syllable stucture, and was shown to be a prosodic effect by autosegmental phonology, thanks to the notion of skeletal positions and the Obligatory Contour Principle. This has particular importance today, since the segmental nature of sonority may naturally be viewed as evidence for 'output-based' and non-representational approaches to the syllable.<br />The basic claim here is that voice, and, more generally, all features associated with 'voice onset time' (VOT) — voice, voicelessness and aspiration (henceforth VOT-values) — are not segmental features ; rather, VOT-values and length contrasts are to be assigned similar representations. It is proposed that phonological words are characterized by two parallel curves which follow from the association with the skeleton of two autonomous and antinomic tiers : the O-tier, where 'onsets' are the roots of consonants, is supposed to stand for (articulatory) 'tension' ; the N-tier, where 'nuclei' are the roots of vowels, represents (perceptual) 'sonority'. VOT-values and length contrasts are, as it were, contextual allophones of such abstract invariants : aspiration and voice emerge from O-spreading to the following N-slot, and from N-spreading to the preceding O-slot respectively ; consonantal and vocalic length results from O-spreading to the preceding N-slot, and from N-spreading to the following O-slot respectively.<br />The representation of VOT-values and length in terms of O/N interactions provides a simple and straightforward solution to six problems at least : (a) why can no segment contain the sole 'feature' [voiced] or [aspirated] ? ; (b) why do gemination and voice behave as the poles of the same 'strength scale' ? ; (c) why are voice contrasts much more frequent among consonants than among vowels ? ; (d) why is compensatory lengthening impossible before vowel ? ; (e) why are both initial aspiration and final voicing 'edge-specific' marked phenomena ? ; (f) why does voicing normally take place in intervocalic position, but fails to occur either word-initially or after coda ? Finally, voicing and vowel lengthening are shown to be alternative lenition strategies.<br />Beyond its explanatory power, the hypothesis of O/N interactions has an important issue on cognitive grounds. By denying any symbolic status to aspiration and voice, we are led to reduce the number of segmental primitives. By assuming that both VOT-values and length contrasts are segmental effects of onset and nucleus weight, defined as the number of slots onsets and nuclei are associated with, we are assigning a representational basis to syllables : 'syllables' exist wherever VOT and/or length contrasts may emerge. This runs counter the claims of output-based approaches, where syllables emerge from smaller units. A contrario, the present theory is likely to lend phonological support to quite independently grounded ideas, since based on brain studies, like MacNeilage's distinction between frame and content. In particular, the assumed autonomy of syllabic structure, i.e. of VOT/length, vis-à-vis segmental material proper is consonant with "the idea that speech production branches into metrical and segmental processes, and that syllabic frames are conceptually separable from their phonemic content".

Cette grammaire de l’amuzgo (ISO 639-3) ou n͂omndaa (littéralement ‘le mot de l’eau’) tend à combler un manque de travaux théoriques sur cette langue otomangue de la branche orientale (branche qu’elle partage avec le mixtec). La source référentielle Ethnologue lui attribue le statut ‘en développement’. Pourtant, l’amuzgo reste vulnérable sur le plan socio-politique de par son statut de langue indigène du Mexique : le village Xochistlahuaca (Etat de Guerrero) est la 16è municipalité la plus pauvre du pays. En employant des approches non-concaténatives de phonologie et de morphologie, telles la phonologie gabaritique, la morphologie templatique, et des formalismes non-lexicalistes comme le Paradigm Function Morphology, cette grammaire cherche à modéliser des systèmes complexes représentés dans cette langue. Des approches non-linéaires sont plus aptes à rendre compte des inventaires élaborés comme les tons, et (dans une échelle scalaire) la phonation non-modale, la nasalisation, et la balisticité (un contraste phonétique et articulatoire au niveau de la syllabe). Ces systèmes complexes comprennent des fonctions lexico-grammaticales par grades à travers des structures diverses dans la grammaire, de la lexicalité à la phonologie interne, de la dérivation à la flexion. / This grammar of Amuzgo (ISO 639-3), endonymically n͂omndaa, literally ‘the word of water’) seeks to fill a lack in theoretical work on this Otomanguean language from the Eastern branch (shared with Mixtec). Rated as developing by the reference Ethnologue, this language is nevertheless in a constant position of socio-political vulnerability as an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken in the village of Xochistlahuaca (Guerrero State), also the 16th poorest municipality in the country. Using non-concatenative approaches in phonology and morphology such as autosegmental phonology, templatic morphology and non-lexical morphological formalisms such as Paradigm Function Morphology, this grammar seeks to model complex systems represented in this language. Non-linear approaches account for elaborate inventories of tone, and, in a gradient scale, non-modal phonation and autosegments like nasalization and ballisticity, a syllable level contrast of phonetic and articulatory saliency. These complex systems display gradient lexical-grammatical functions across structures in the grammar, from lexicality to internal phonology, to derivation and inflection.