Language: Volume 93 - | Cambridge Core

It's still worth theorizing on LEL, despite the heterogeneity and complexity of the processes (Response to commentators)*
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Published online by Cambridge University Press:

01 January 2026, pp. e306-e316
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I am grateful for the generally thought-provoking commentaries on my target article (Mufwene 2017), which reveal how multifaceted and complex the subject matter of LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT AND LOSS (LEL) is. They also show how difficult it is to develop a position that addresses all of the issues. Because of space limitations, my responses focus on the most critical ones.

Contiguity theory. By Norvin Richards. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016. Pp. 400. ISBN 9780262034425. $38.
Dennis Ott
Published online by Cambridge University Press:

01 January 2026, pp. 720-723
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Phonological conditions on variable adjective and noun word order in Tagalog
Stephanie S. Shih, Kie Zuraw
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01 January 2026, pp. e317-e352
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Tagalog adjectives and nouns variably occur in two word orders, separated by an intermediary linker: adjective-linker-noun versus noun-linker-adjective. The linker has two phonologically conditioned surface forms, -ng and na. This article presents a large-scale corpus study of adjective/ noun order variation in Tagalog, focusing in particular on phonological conditions. Results show that word-order variation in adjective/noun pairs optimizes for phonological structure, abiding by phonotactic, syllabic, and morphophonological well-formedness preferences that are also found elsewhere in Tagalog grammar. The results indicate that surface phonological information is accessible for word-order choice.

All dissimilation is computationally subsequential
Amanda Payne
Published online by Cambridge University Press:

01 January 2026, pp. e353-e371
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This article presents a computational analysis of the 185 dissimilation patterns in the typological surveys by Suzuki (1998) and Bennett (2013), and shows that dissimilation is computationally less complex than has been previously shown. Dissimilation patterns are grouped into three general types (basic, blocking, and polarity), each of which can be modeled with a subsequential finite-state transducer. This lends support to the claim that phonological patterns are not only regular, but in fact subsequential, which is a more restrictive class of patterns computationally and provides a stronger bound on the types of processes expected in natural language phonology.

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