FINNISH PHONOLOGY: FORM 1040 OR FORM 1040 A,

The paper presents various characterizations of Finnish phonology and tries to demonstrate that an abbreviated form is not only adequate but highly desirable. The short form involves generalizations which are not embodied in the larger structural model, and it also accounts for certain asymmetries in the phoneme inventory and phonotactics which are otherwise quite arbitrary. There arises from this comparison the interesting question of whether the short form approximates the correct psychological model, or whether the less abstract superficial model is more in accord with the speakers grammar. There appears to be some evidence that native speakers miss generalizations which can account for the phonological structure of the language and blissfully, guiltlessly, operate on perfectly arbitrary rules. This may be a mistaken impression. The speaker may command the most abstract generalizations subconsciously and yet fail to recognize them. In any case, arguments both for and against native intuition are presented in the paper. Author