PERSISTENCE OF THE LATIN ACCENT IN THE NOMINAL ...

consonant in onset position is strong as established by the universality of the CV syllable. In the
case of Spanish, Hooper (1976, 209) notes that there are no conditions on the strength value of
the initial consonant while there are marked preferences with regard to coda consonants favoring
resonants and disfavoring obstruents.
NUCLEUS
MARGIN MARGIN
obstruents nasals liquids glides vowels glides liquids nasals obstruents
Least vowel-like Most vowel-like Less vowel-like
STRONG WEAK WEAK
Figure 1-18. The intrinsic structure of the syllable (Hooper 1976).
Further evidence for the sonority hierarchy, discussed in Kiparsky (2008) as an example of a
constraint based universal sequencing preference, comes from studies of language disorders
where it is observed that the constraints governing sequencing “must be represented in some
multi-level, distributed fashion in the nervous system since they are impervious to even severe
forms of brain damage” (Buckingham and Christman 2008, 131).
Hooper (1976, 206) also posits a universal strength hierarchy for consonants reproduced in
Figure 1-19 (cf. Parker 2002, 210, who establishes a sonority hierarchy for Spanish; also Blevins
2004a, 159-172; Gordon 2007, 754-756; Kiparsky 2008, 49-52). She further speculates that
weak consonants, those with lower numerical score, are more likely to occur in the weak position
of the syllable while the converse is true for the strong (initial) position of the syllable. These
concepts are validated by diachronic studies, particularly in Romance linguistics (Cross 1934,
Geisler 1992, Granda Gutiérrez 1966, Jacobs 1994, Mayerthaler 1982, Väänänen 1967,
Wireback 1996). The weakening and/or loss of syllable final and word final consonants in the
transition from Latin to Romance is richly documented.
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