Empty consonants and other CV-tier effects in Aranese Gascon

In this paper, strong support for the existence and independence of the CV-tier is derived from a number of facts in the phonology of the Aranese dialect of Gascon. It is shown that this language possesses both word-initial and word-final empty consonants, and that it also makes a distinction between tautomorphemic and heteromorphemic affricates which should be captured in terms of a difference in the linkage to the CV-tier. These facts have special significance in view of recent proposals to eliminate the CV-tier from phonological representations.