phonology phonetics casali roderic f resolving hiatus 08153 3149 5 cloth pages 59 garland publishing outstanding dissertations linguistics study investigates two alternative ways languages resolve sequences adjacent vowels hiatus deletion one vowels coalescence adjacent vowels form third vowel combines features originals although existing phonological theories predict relatively restrictions behavior either process survey 92 languages reveals number surprising previously unreported limitations behavior example although deletion first two vowels extremely common apply position deletion second vowel restricted certain welldefined morphosyntactic contexts boundary root suffix restrictions explained terms functionallymotivated constraints favor preservation phonological material certain prominent positions root morphemes case coalescence study reveals surprising correlation structure language vowel inventory result merging high nonhigh vowels correlation explained terms novel theory acoustic height features whose detailed specification determined functionallymotivated constraints sensitive number vowel heights within particular language e mail info garland com