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Left margin in Polish45[wk]aæ[wg]aæ[rv]etes‘weep’‘lie’‘commotion’[db]aæ[pt]ak[gb]ur‘care’‘bird’‘boor’The forms in (1) above illustrate some possibilities of two consonant clustersat the left edge of the word. The set in (1a) represents #RT sequenceswhich have proved problematic for most of the previous accountsincluding the GP analysis (see Cyran and Gussmann 1999). In(1b) we can see two-obstruent sequences. The clusters in both sets arisedue to the application of the same mechanism, that is, Proper Government.However, such combinations are possible only on condition thatthe initial CV unit is inactive. The representation of [rd¡z]a and [pt]ak isgiven in (2).(2)a. PG b. PG(C V) C|rV|PC|d¡zV|a(C V) C|pV|PC|tV|aC|kV|PNeither the cluster in (2a) nor the one in (2b) is able to contract IG. Theyare separated by the empty nucleus which must be governed to stay muteand this is done by the following full vowel through PG. Furthermore,given the fact that there are no formal requirements on the melodic makeupof consonants separated by the governed empty nucleus, clusters withthe reverse order of consonants should also be possible. This, however, isnot always the case. While all of the possibilities in (1a) have their mirror-images,e.g. [rd]est — [dr]oga, ‘knotgrass’/‘road’, [rt]êæ — [tr]aktat,‘mercury’/‘treaty’, only a few examples in (1b) can do the same, e.g. [kt]o— [tk]aæ, ‘who’/‘weave’ but [pt]ak — *[tp-], ‘bird’/- . As for the forms in(1a) the reverse order of segments does not necessarily mean that bothconsonants must contract the IG relation. In other words, the right orderof consonants does not automatically guarantee that they can constitutea consonantal relation. Thus, #TR clusters behave inconsistently in thatthey sometimes contract the relation and sometimes do not. In the latterscenario the consonants are separated by the empty nucleus which isproperly governed. The lesson to be learned from this observation is thatthe status of the consonant clusters cannot be taken for granted or predictedwell in advance. In order to decide whether a #TR cluster is aninstantiation of PG or IG we should check the influence such clustersexert on neighbouring vowels, i.e. vowel-zero alternations and the voca-