On the lack of palatalization before –end- in the plural of Icelandic nominalized present participles such as Leikandi.

Abstract

This paper discusses the velar pronunciation of the root final segments in the plural of the Icelandic nominalized present participles, e.g. in leikend-, the plural of leikandi "actor". Since k(k)and g(g) are pronounced palatal before e in other old words(e.g. in akkeri "anchor"), the velar pronunciation of leikend- and similar words requires an expla­ nation. I see in the non-application of the palatalisation rule (while that rule operated before e; it is by no means certain that it still does) to leikend- and similar words the effect of Kiparsky's phonological universal ("Neutralization processes apply only to derived inputs") as modified in Orešnik 1979 (substrings crucially involving word-derivational morpheme boundaries are not derived inputs). Thus the /k+e/ of leikend- is not a derived input, and the palatal1sation rule, a neutralisation process, does not apply to it.