| Summary: | This thesis deals with the phonology of Gitksan, a Tsimshianic language spoken in
northern British Columbia, Canada. The claim of this thesis is that Gitksan exhibits several
gradient phonological restrictions on consonantal cooccurrence that hold over the lexicon.
There is a gradient restriction on homorganic consonants, and within homorganic pairs, there
is a gradient restriction on major class and manner features. It is claimed that these
restrictions are due to a generalized OCP effect in the grammar, and that this effect can be
relativized to subsidiary features, such as place, manner, etc. It is argued that these types of
effects are best analyzed with the system of weighted constraints employed in Harmonic
Grammar (Legendre et al. 1990, Smolensky & Legendre 2006).
It is also claimed that Gitksan exhibits a gradient assimilatory effect among specific
consonants. This type of effect is rare, and is unexpected given the general conditions of
dissimilation. One such effect is the frequency of both pulmonic pairs of consonants and
ejective pairs of consonants, which occur at rates higher than expected by chance. Another is
the occurrence of uvular-uvular and velar-velar pairs of consonants, which also occur at rates
higher than chance. This pattern is somewhat surprising, as there is a gradient prohibition on
cooccurring pairs of dorsal consonants. These assimilatory patterns are analyzed using the
Agreement by Correspondence approach (Hansson 2001, Rose & Walker 2004), which
mandates that output correspondents agree for some phonological feature.
The general discussion of assimilation and dissimilation is continued in
morphological contexts, such as reduplication. It is claimed there are differences in the
gradient and categorical patterns of assimilation and dissimilation in Coast Tsimshian and
Gitksan reduplicative contexts. A summary of the attested reduplicative patterns in the
languages, as well as results from a nonce-probe task, supports this claim. This difference
between Coast Tsimshian and Gitksan is indicative of a larger difference in the reduplicative
patterns of the languages of the Tsimshianic family: each member of the family exhibits
slightly different patterns of deglottalization. A typological study of these patterns suggests
that glottalized sonorants and obstruents are fundamentally different segment types.
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