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Travis G. Bradley (University of California, Davis) Session 23Eric Russell Webb (University of California, Davis)Accounting for intrasyllabic rhotic metathesis: The interplay of articulation & perceptionBlevins and Garrett 1998, 2004 argue that rhotic metathesis occurs when listeners reinterpret an elongated [low F3] feature in a nonhistoricalposition. However, not all cases are amenable to such an account, as no single phonetic property unifies the class of rhotics.We examine two cases of intrasyllabic rhotic metathesis, namely leftward movement of apical taps in Spanish and rightwardmovement of dorsal fricatives in French. We analyze the directional asymmetry as a conspiracy of articulatory and perceptualconditions. Rhotic-vowel overlap produces indeterminate linear ordering, which listeners subsequently reinterpret in accordance withattested patterns of the language (Hume 2004).Michelle C. Braña-Straw (University of Essex) Session 9Examining vowel changes in South-East EnglandInternal accounts of language change underpin much variationist work on U.S. English. The Southern Shift (SVS), attributed toSouthern U.S. varieties is presumed to operate in South-East England (SEE), Australia, and New Zealand. Diachronic and synchronicevidence from the front and back vowel systems for Suffolk, England, challenges the presumption that SVS occurs in SEE. Suffolkvowels conform to predicted SVS 'end states', without the necessary evidence for interrelated chain shifts. Rather, SVS 'end state'variants have existed in Suffolk since at least the 1800s in competition with other variants, finally winning out, through a process ofdialect contact.Jonathan Brennan (New York University) Session 12Only, finallyI examine the focus particle only in cases where it follows its focused associate (John spoke to one linguist, only). Adopting Kayne's(1998) framework, the characteristics of final only are captured by appealing to a finely articulated DP. Limitations on the placementof focus when only appears finally suggest that the focus particle heads a DP-internal projection similar in structure to Kayne's VPexternalOnlyP. The projection hosts a specifier into which the focused associate raises. Unlike VP-external only, there are no higherprojections that allow only to raise and precede its specifier, accounting for the limited distribution.George Aaron Broadwell (University at Albany, State University of New York) Session 95Differential object marking in Copala TriqueCopala Trique, an Otomanguean language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, shows differential object marking (DOM), with obligatoryaccusative marking in some contexts, but not others (Bossong 1985, Aissen 2003). Accusative is obligatory only when the directobject is a human pronominal; in all other elicitation contexts, both variants are judged good. However, discourse shows twointeracting factors--animacy and specificity--that influence the frequency of accusative marking. Such data seem to require atheoretical approach, such as stochastic optimality theory, which is capable of modeling the variable strength of multiple factors whichaffect grammaticality.Bruce Brown (Brigham Young U) Session 78Hooshang Farahnakian (Brigham Young U)Mary Farahnakian (Brigham Young U)David Gardner (Institute for the Study of Language and Culture)Deryle Lonsdale (Brigham Young U)Matthew Spackman (Brigham Young U)Dialectal effects in the pronunciation of Farsi given namesSegmental phonemes are compared to acoustical suprasegmental properties to determine how well each accounts for dialectaldifferences in spoken Farsi given names, family names, and place names. First, an accuracy-of-classification paradigm is used tomeasure how well dialect is subjectively recognizable to native speakers from spoken names. Second, these same spoken names arestatistically analyzed for segmental phonological differences. Third, the spoken names are statistically analyzed for acousticaldifferences. Lens model computations are used to compare phonological segmentation and acoustical analysis, and acoustic propertiesare found to be better mediators of accuracy in identifying dialect from spoken names than segmental phonemes.106