A Phonetically-Based Optimality Theoretic Account of Consonant ...

never undergoes place assimilation in both English and Korean, and that Ipkl may
optionally undergo place assimilation in Korean only, in which case the cluster is perceived
as [kk].
Follow-up perceptual experiments showed that whether listeners heard Ipl as
assimilated in Ipk! clusters depended on whether the Ipl was reduced: Only in case of a
reduced Ipl did the place cues of the labial coda remain undetected in Ipk!. That is, place
assimilation in Ipk! obtains if and only if the labial coda is reduced; otherwise, [pk] is
perceived, irrespective of the degree of p-k overlap. Jun (1995) concludes that gestural
reduction, and not overlap, plays the decisive role in perceptual assimilation.
Finally, he concludes with Barry (1992) and Nolan (1992) that gestural reduction in
casual speech place assimilation is speaker-controlled, that is, gestural reduction in gradient
place assimilation does not arise as the consequence of vocal tract constraints (p. 135).
3.2 Typological Generalizations
Based on a more extensive typological survey of place assimilation, Jun (1995)
corroborates Mohanan's (1993) cross-linguistic generalization 11 that if non-coronals
undergo place assimilation, so do coronals. Moreover, based on the place assimilation
patterns in Korean and the assimilation patterns in the Inuktitut dialects surveyed in Dorais
(1986), he elaborates on Mohanan's generalization by suggesting that if velars are targets
of place assimilation, so are labials, and if labials are targets of place assimilation, so are
coronals (p. 92), i.e., coronals are more likely to undergo place assimilation than labials,
which are in turn more likely to undergo place assimilation than velars. Note that in
Taiwanese, although IP, T, KI may all undergo place assimilation, and thus conform to
Jun's (1995) implicational statements, labials are less likely than velars to be targets in
11 Mohanan's (1993) generalizations are based on attested place assimilation patterns in English, Korean,
Hindi, and Malayalam (Jun 1995: 40).
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