38 An Optimality Theory Analysis of Woleaian Vowel Chain Shift and Compensatory Vowel Lengthening Pocholo Umbal* Simon Fraser University pnu@sfu.ca 1. Introduction Woleaian is an Austronesian language spoken in the Woleaian atoll of Micronesia (Sohn 1975). In Woleaian, word-final vowels present an intriguing case because they exhibit a non-surface true opacity effect by means of a chain shift: in word-final positions, underlyingly long vowels surface as short while underlyingly short vowels surface as voiceless. However, it is not the case that underlyingly long vowels surface as voiceless. This is illustrated in (1). 1) /rigi/ [rigi̥] “to run” [rigilago̥] “to run away” /bbo:/ [bbo] “pounding” [bbo:we] “that pounding stone” cf. *[bbo̥] Another interesting phenomenon that seems to apply only to disyllabic noun stems is compensatory vowel lengthening. Short vowels in the penultimate syllable are lengthened when the word-final vowel has undergone devoicing. This compensatory lengthening, however, does not occur each time a short vowel has been devoiced; restrictions are imposed such that the presence of other long vowels or consonant geminates prohibits lengthening – as evidenced in (2). 2) /mata/ [ma:te] 1 “eyes” [matagatʃy̥] 2 “good eyes” /bo:ti/ [bo:ti̥] “nose” [bo:tile̥] “his nose” /bbuwa/ [bbuwe̥] “betel nut” [bbuwagatʃy̥] “good betel nut” Rule-based phonology can easily account for the chain shift phenomenon and compensatory vowel lengthening in Woleaian. The rules Final Vowel Devoicing (3) and Final Vowel Shortening (4) – ordered in a counterfeeding relationship – explains the former. It is crucial to highlight that there must be two rules that apply to this specific context because the vowels undergo different processes. Meanwhile, another rule, Compensatory Vowel Lengthening (5), takes care of the latter. The derivations in (6) illustrate the rule interaction. 3) Final (short) vowel devoicing (FVD) V à V̥ / _# *Thank you very much to Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble for her valuable input throughout this endeavor. This paper was presented at the 30 th Northwest Linguistics Conference, so I also thank the audience for their feedback. Any mistakes are my own. 1 Note that underlying /a/ surfaces as [e]. This phenomenon in Woleaian is referred to as /a/-raising. There are in fact three environments in which /a/-raising apply: in word-final positions, between two high vowels, and before another low vowel. There are different motivations for this type of raising (e.g. harmony, dissimilation, etc.). However, since this is not relevant to this discussion, it is sufficient to know that this alternation exists; hence, [a] never shows up word-finally. 2 [y] here is actually transcribed as [iu] in Sohn (1975).