Dene (Athabaskan) verbs are widely known for their complex morphophonology. The most complex patterns are associated with two conjugation markers, /s/ and /n/, which are associated with a floating H tone to their immediate left. In this paper, we provide an analysis of /θe/ and /ɲe/, the reflexes of the /s/ and /n/ conjugations in Tetsǫ́t’ıné. Whereas previous accounts of these conjugations have relied heavily on morphological conditioning, we show that, once level ordering, autosegmental phonology and metrical phonology are brought to bear on the problem, morphological conditioning is not required. Within the framework of Stratal OT, we propose the Domain Reference Hypothesis, by which phonological constraints may only refer to morphological domains and their edges. In addition, we show that in Tetsǫ́t’ıné there is a correlation between phonological opacity and morphological structure, as predicted by the Stratal OT model.

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Tetsó ˛t'ıné is a dialect of Dëne Su ˛łıné (ISO: CHP) spoken in Canada's Northwest Territories. The verb system of Tetsó ˛t'ıné has only recently been described (Jaker and Cardinal 2020); this paper is the first to propose an analysis of the distribution of long and short vowels in Tetsó ˛t'ıné prefixes. In Tetsó ˛t'ıné, all long vowels in prefixes are derived from intervocalic consonant deletion, although not all cases of intervocalic consonant deletion result in a long vowel. Whether or not deletion of an intervocalic consonant results in a long or short vowel depends on a combination of two factors: the consonant that was deleted, and the morphological level to which the preceding prefix belongs. In this paper, I propose that the basic generalization about prefix vowel length can be stated in terms of SYSTEMATIC UNDERSPECIFICATION (Kiparsky 1993). I claim that prefix vowels, unlike stem vowels, have zero moras underlyingly, and only acquire a mora after passing through at least one level of the phonology. This analysis predicts that prefix vowel length ought to be subject to a Derived Environment Effect (DEE), for which there is indeed evidence. The pattern of mora insertion in Tetsó ˛t'ıné prefix vowels is thus an example of the interleaving of phonology and morphology, and illustrates how phonological behaviour can be to some extent predicted based on morphological structure.

In most dialects of Dëne Sųłıné, the optative prefix, reconstructed in Proto Dene as *ɢʷə (Krauss 1969), exhibits an alternation in verb paradigms: an a-vowel is found in the 1 st and 3 rd person singular forms (ɣʷa, wa, or ha, depending on the dialect), while an u-vowel is found elsewhere (ɣʷu, wu, hu). This alternation raises three questions. First, how could the same consonant *ɢʷ trigger both raising and lowering of the following vowel? Secondly, what phonological factors conditioned this alternation historically? And finally, does this alternation still belong to the synchronic phonology of modern Dëne Sųłıné dialects?In this paper, I will explore what insights the Contrastivist Hypothesis (CH) (Hall 2007, Dresher 2009) can add to our understanding of this alternation. Representationally, the CH makes it possible to describe lowering to a as spreading of [low], while raising to u involves spreading of [round]. I propose that the choice of which process applied in which forms depended on prosodic factors. In addition, I show what insights the CH can contribute to internal reconstruction. Specifically, I argue that, under the CH, spreading of [low] cannot be a part of the modern synchronic phonology of Dëne Sųłıné, but rather originated at a time before a series of consonant shifts occurred in the language, in particular when the retroflex series was still part of the consonant inventory.

This paper presents both distributional and acoustic phonetic evidence for iambic stress in Tetsǫ́t'ıné (ISO: CHP), a Dene (Athapaskan) language with contrastive vowel length and four contrastive tones. In our acoustic study, we find that the primary correlate of stress in Tetsǫ́t'ıné is duration, whereas intensity plays a secondary but statistically significant role. There was no statistically significant effect on F0 in our results. We discuss our results in relation to several proposals regarding the typology of stress systems. Based on the Functional Load Hypothesis (Berinstein 1979) and Dispersion Theory (Flemming 1995, 2001), we find that our results are to some extent unexpected. We suggest that our results are most consistent with the Iambic–Trochaic Law (Hayes 1995), which predicts that iambic stress systems prefer to use duration as their primary stress correlate.