A Feature Alignment Approach to Plural Realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish

Using an optimality theoretic analysis, this study offers a conception of the problem of plural realization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish (EAS) where plural suffix /s/ was deleted diachronically that differs from other accounts that assign the EAS plural an underlying suffixal /s/ synchronically. Using alignment constraints, we argue that plural /s/ does not appear in the underlying form synchronically in EAS, but that instead the plural morpheme is represented by a floating [–ATR]PL feature that aligns to the right edge of the word and spreads left. The [–ATR] feature, represented phonetically as a laxing or opening of vowels, applies to all mid vowels, low vowels in word final position, and combines with vowel epenthesis to explain Eastern Andalusian pluralization tendencies in words with final consonants. We discuss the behavior of high vowels, which can be transparent to harmony, and focus in particular on the plural of words that end in a final stressed vowel that have been rarely discussed in the EAS literature. We develop an optimality-theoretic analysis on the Granada variety and extend that analysis to other varieties with somewhat different patterns.