The phonetics and phonology of Tashlhiyt Berber syllabic consonants

Tashlhiyt Berber has entered the folklore of phonological theory as an unusual language in which any consonant can be syllabic, many word consisting entirely of consonants. I shall argue for an alternative analysis, according to which the epenthetic vowels which frequently accompany syllabic consonants are the phonetic realisations of syllable nuclei. Where no vowel occurs, it can be regarded as hidden by the following consonant, according to a gestural overlap model. On this view, Tashlhiyt syllable structure is a quite unmarked VC (C(C)), and syllabification is unproblematic.