Constraints on the coda: The distribution of /r/

In discussing the phonology of English-related language varieties, the issue of rhoticity is inevitably discussed. Post-vocalic syllable final /r/ occurs in items lexically specified to bear it. There is a constraint operating here, however. The immediately preceding segment in the nucleus in such cases has to be either /ia/, /ua/, /aa/ or /o/. (This distribution indicates that the preceding vowel segment must be /a/, whether this is linked to a V-slot as in the first three examples or to /o/, a vowel which we analyze elsewhere as consisting of a combination of the features associated with an /ia/ sequence, occupying, however, a single V slot.

The phoneme /r/ is blocked from occurring after nuclei consisting of /a/, /ii/, /uu/, /ai/ and /au/. What these all lack, as opposed to /ia/, /ua/ and /o/ is the presence of an immediately preceding /a/, whether realized on the surface, as in the first three cases above, or underlyingly as in the last. JamC does not allow post-vocalic /r/ in the environment of a succeeding tautosyllabic consonant.