For Japanese and Korean learners of English as a second language (ESL), the substitution of [š] (the palatalized [s]) for /s/, is a well‐documented error pattern, in which a phonological rule of the learnerʹs native language (L1) is transferred to the production of the target language (L2). A necessary task for learners to achieve target‐appropriate production of L2 sounds is to overcome such rules of L1 phonology. Motivated by anecdotal observations, this work investigates any potential relations between the pronunciation accuracy of the target English /s/ and some social factors of Korean and Japanese ESL learners: L1, gender, academic major, LOR, and attitude. Two sets of production data, spontaneous speech and isolated words reading, were collected from sixteen Japanese and thirteen Korean learners of English. Then, a series of impressionistic analyses of the data was conducted. The findings indicate that the level of target‐appropriate L2 production is, to an extent, related to the learnerʹs personal and social factors.

This study investigates how the notion of feature geometry can be effectively incorporated into the instantiation of general constraint definition in Optimality Theory. To this end, we examine three types of palatalization observed across languages: the fronting of velar, the change of place within coronals, and the addition of secondary palatalization. For the first two cases, unlike previous work by Clements and Hume (1995) and Lahiri and Evers (1991), we propose that both of those processes involve the spreading of the whole [coronal] node only of the triggering vowel onto C-place node of the coronal consonant. Furthermore, unlike Iverson (1993), we also distinguish two types of coronalization from the secondary articulation as in Acadian French. Following Clements and Hume (1995), we assume that the secondary articulation is the result of spreading the coronal node onto the V-place of the consonant with the primary place intact. This pattern opens the way to put another featural node [C-place] into use in the OT constraints. This study confirms a possibility to take advantage of feature geometry in specifying the substance of constraints.

This paper deals with the phonological reconstruction of Old English Palatalization in prefixed words focusing on how morphology interacts with phonology and how the phonological reconstruction can be substantially confirmed. It will be shown that the traditional descriptions of Old English Palatalization tend to oversimplify the contexts for its application and make predictions not consistent with other synchronic phonological phenomena. Once the sound values of the relevant consonants in Old English prefixed words are reconstructed, Middle English orthographic system and the alliterative convention in Old English versification, often used as major sources for the reconstruction of Old English sounds, will be explored in detail in order to evaluate the validity of the proposed phonological reconstruction.