Gliding in Russian

This article examines the process of gliding in Russian within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). The investigation of phenomena associated with the distribution of the front glide j and the vowel i reveals that standard OT cannot produce an adequate analysis of a large body of data. Russian is problematic because an attempt to generate gliding in one set of forms but block it in another leads to a number of ranking paradoxes. The contradictions stem from the inability of parallel OT to express the basic generalisation that whenever there is gliding in post-consonantal position, the consonant and the glide are separated by an alternating vowel (a yer). In a position after a yer, the high vowel glides even though this yer fails to vocalise. So the process of gliding is opaque because its trigger, the underlying vowel, is not present on the surface. As is well-known, parallel OT, which evaluates output forms using one set of ranked constraints, cannot handle opaque generalisations. This study demonstrates that a modified version of OT, Derivational Optimality Theory (DOT), can successfully analyse the phenomena under consideration.