Catalan Vowel Epenthesis as Evidence for the Free Ride Approach to Morphophonemic Learning

The purpose of this squib is twofold. On the empirical side, we provide new arguments for the epenthetic nature of the vowel in 〈esC〉-words, arising from the interaction between potential word-initial vowel epenthesis and underapplication of vowel reduction in Majorcan Catalan. On the theoretical side, we show how Majorcan Catalan learners take a "free ride" (McCarthy 2005b) in the process of constructing the UR of nonalternating forms involving 〈esC〉- initials by generalizing the pattern - and the subsequent input-output mapping - observed in cases with transparent morphophonemic alternations and a similar syllabification problem.