On the category Supralaryngeal

Abstract

In this essay I suggest that the conventional bifurcation of geometrically organised feature bundles into ‘Laryngeal’ and ‘Supralaryngeal’ categories, advocated most prominently in the provocative work of Clements (1985, 1987), Sagey (1986) and Archangeli & Pulleyblank (forthcoming), should be modified to eliminate the Supralaryngeal element altogether. Specifically, the proposal is that the category Place and the features of manner be removed from subordination under the Supralaryngeal node, as in the conventional configuration displayed in (1), and instead be subsumed directly under Root, as depicted in (2):1