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Sonorant conspiracy147Brockhaus (1995) such clusters are separated by the empty governednucleus both in the word-medial and word-final position. She justifies herchoice by indicating that from the diachronic point of view such wordinitialclusters are separated by a nuclear position, e.g. Gneis > MHG g(a)neist,Gnade > MHG g(e)nade > OHG gina – da (see section 3.2.2 above).She immediately admits, however, that this solution is problematic asit cannot explain the lack of two-obstruent clusters in the word-initial positionand the fact that in Northern Standard German the initial [g] isnever devoiced, which is the regular case in the word-internal position (see(36b) above). In the analysis developed in this book Brockhaus’s (1995)solution is not available. Note that if it is true that in German, just asin English, the initial empty CV unit is active, this means that the initial[kn] cannot be separated by the empty properly governed nucleus. Wereit the case, the initial CV site would remain ungoverned. Our stand, therefore,is that the word-initial [kn] and [gn] clusters have their origin in thevowel syncope as confirmed by the diachronic facts. However, due to thepresence of the initial CV unit which requires a governor such clusterswent one step further and contracted a governing relation, that is, InfrasegmentalGovernment. In other words, word-initial [kn] and [gn] clustershave the same status as other regular clusters, e.g. [gl], [pl], etc., they holda governing relation (37).(37) PGC 0V 0C|gVP→IGC|nVCoÉVC|mV|PThe Infrasegmental Government domain is the furthest point a sonorantcan reach. Note that this solution explains the fact why it must bea ‘TR’ cluster (only a sonorant can contract a governing relation with thepreceding obstruent), and why the initial obstruent does not undergo devoicingin NSG. The situation where the same cluster has two differentrepresentations is not unusual, as pointed out in Chapter Two. Specifically,in Polish a ‘TR’ cluster can either contract IG or be separated by the emptyproperly governed nucleus. Additionally, this solution can be confirmedby the behaviour of the [dr] cluster in German. Recall that the obstruentin this cluster never undergoes devoicing regardless of the dialectand the position it holds in the word. Thus, the form Rudrer [ru:drŒ], forexample, is pronounced identically in both dialects, i.e. Hochlautung10*