Azentua eta hasperena: QED

In Basque dialects with a three-way VOT phonological contrast in the plosives, voiceless plosives are generally aspirated when they occur on the onset of the second syllable of the word, e.g. akher ‘billy goat’. There are, however, some exceptions, with unaspirated /ptk/ in that position, e.g. jakin ‘to know’. Mitxelena hypothesized that, at an earlier time, aspiration may have been conditioned by stress-accent. That is, voiceless plosives were aspirated on the onset of the stressed syllable, but not after the stress. Here I provide direct evidence confirming Mitxelena’s hypothesis, based on the analysis of accentual distinctions in the dialect of Goizueta.