The [ATR]/Laryngeal connection and emergent features

In this paper I consider an unusual sound change and synchronic alternation in southeastern dialects of Welsh, traditionally referred to as ‘provection’ (Welsh calediad). This phenomenon involves the ‘devoicing’ of stops following stressed vowels. I analyse it as the result of a typologically rare kind of vowel-consonant featural interaction, where ‘devoicing’ is triggered by tense vowels. This is unexpected typologically, since tongue root advancement— often a correlate of ‘tense’ vowel quality — is more frequently associated with voicing rather than devoicing in obstruents. I argue that in Welsh the phonologization of the quality distinction in stressed vowels has created a system where such an interaction is dispreferred.