Untitled

66 The phonological nature of the beginning of the wordSzigetvári 1999, Rowicka 1999a,), the study of such segmentshas recently attracted greater interest (Afuta 2002, Blaho 2001,2002, Rowicka 2003, Toft forth.). However, to my knowledge it wasScheer (2004) who first proposed a thorough and in-depth analysis ofthe syllabic cognates, that is, trapped consonants. Needless to say, theproblem of a sonorant sandwiched between two obstruents has long beennoticed; however, such clusters have never been analysed in a separatestudy.The main problem with trapped consonants lies in the fact thata segment which should be ascribed a syllabic status, as it is trappedbetween two consonants of lower sonority, is stubbornly consistent inrefusing such an identity. Moreover, what is a trapped consonant in Polishenjoys a syllabic status in neighbouring languages, often in the samewords. In short, syllabic consonants behave as if they were vowels, whiletrapped consonants indicate regular consonantal behaviour. It is worthmentioning here that Polish is the only language on record in whichtrapped consonants occur on such a scale. First consider the data in (23)where two patterns of trapped consonants are depicted, i.e. consonantswhich are lexically trapped (23a, b) and consonants which are trappedas the result of the vowel-zero alternation (23c)(23)a.[brd]a[grd]yka[krt]añ[drZ]eæ[drg]aæ[gZb ® ]iet[drgn]¹æc.[krf ® ]i — [kref][brv ® ]i — [bref][drva] — [dref][pwt¡‚]i — [pwet¡‚][xSt]u — [xSest](name of a river)‘Adam’s apple’‘larynx’‘tremble’‘vibrate’‘back’‘shudder, pf.’b.[brn]¹æ[krnombrné][kln]¹æ[tSm ® ]iel[plf]aæ[trf]oniæ[drv]al‘blood, gen.sg./nom.sg.’‘eyebrow, nom.pl./nom.sg.’‘firewood, nom.pl./gen.pl.’‘sex, gen.sg./nom.sg.’‘baptism, gen.sg./nom.sg.’‘plod’‘unruly’‘swear’‘bumble-bee’‘spit’‘waste’‘wood-cutter’A word of explanation is in order here. The forms in (23) illustrate trappedsonorants only at the left edge of the word. Note, however, that thisdoes not mean that such clusters are not present word-internally or finally.Secondly, a sonorant may be trapped between two obstruents (23a)or between an obstruent and another sonorant (23b). It must also be