| Summary: | Spanish has two rhotics: a tap [r] and a trill [r]. Their
distribution is interesting because they are found to be in
contrast, in complementary distribution and in free variation
depending on their position within the syllable and on the
adjacent segments. I intend here to explore how to account for
the observed distributions and to propose an appropriate
phonological representation for these sounds. It will be
claimed that the difference between a tap and a trill is
prosodic in nature. I also explore the possibility of relating
the facts that describe the distribution of r-sounds with those
of the well-studied cases of stop/fricative alternations in the
same language and whether a unified account of both phenomena is
possible. In order to achieve this, I examine data from
syllable structure, stress assignment, dialectal variation and
historical development. The analysis put forth here is
constructed within the theoretical frameworks of Moraic Theory
(Hyman 1985, Hayes 1989), the Nuclear Moraic Model (Shaw 1992),
Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith 1976) and Optimality Theory
(Prince and Smolensky 1993).
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