Consonant Harmony
Long-Distance Interactions in Phonology

A survey of consonant harmony in the world's languages. It reveals surprising diversity in the featural dimensions involved, and uncovers empirical generalizations and tendencies. It develops an Optimality Theory analysis of consonant harmony as long-distance featural agreement, rather than feature spreading.

This extensive survey of consonant harmony in the world's languages reveals surprising diversity in the featural dimensions involved, and uncovers new empirical generalizations and tendencies. Striking parallels with phonological speech errors suggest a connection to the psycholinguistic domain of speech planning. An Optimality Theory analysis of consonant harmony as long-distance featural agreement, rather than feature spreading, is developed in detail.