Syllable Contact and Correspondence in Correspondence Theory

This paper investigates patterns of manner assimilation in Toba Batak, Sanskrit, Ponapean and Korean. Based on cross-linguistic patterns of manner assimilation, I develop the constraint, Syllable Contact (SyllCon), as a type of a markedness constraint in Correspondence Theory. With the establishment of high-ranking SyllCon, I argue that several patterns of manner assimilation result from the interaction of high-ranking SyllCon and correspondence constraints such as Ident[sonorant].