ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the phonemic contrasts operative in Spanish, as well as some major phonological processes of neutralization from an Optimality Theoretic perspective. Unless otherwise indicated, most neutralization processes discussed here are based on data from north-central Peninsular Spanish. The empirical focus of this chapter is on the following phonological processes: (i) nonassimilatory and assimilatory neutralization of place contrasts in coda nasal consonants, (ii) coda depalatalization, (iii) the distribution and neutralization of rhotic consonants, and (iv) the range of neutralization processes that target stop consonants in coda position. In addressing these phenomena, the best formal analyses available in the literature are presented. The analyses are framed within the two main approaches to phonemic contrast and neutralization developed within Optimality Theory: structure-based approaches based on licensing and positional faithfulness, which concentrate on determining in which environments phonemic contrasts are preserved or neutralized, and cue-based approaches such as Dispersion Theory, which focuses on the role of contrast in shaping sound inventories. A case of phonological opacity involving neutralization processes that target stop consonants in coda position is also analyzed in Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains, a derivational version of Optimality Theory.
