Coronal Palatalization in Slovak: A DOT Account

This article investigates the process of Coronal Palatalization in Slovak form the perspective of Optimality Theory. The discussion in the following sections shows that the classic version of Optimality Theory cannot handle the changes that affect Slovak coronals due to the fact that palatalization may interact with the process of æ-Backing, thus leading to opaque alternations. To couch the opaque relation of palatalization and æ-Backing in a constraint-based model, it is necessary to resort to level distinction OT in the form of Derivational Optimality Theory