Unwarranted exceptionality: The case of Polish y

•The single-phoneme approach not recognizing phonemic [ɨ] is investigated.•The analyses are conducted on the basis of Polish.•It is shown that the lack of [ɨ] necessitates lexical indexation.•Lexical indexation is unable to account for all the Polish data.•Palatalization processes in Polish motivate level distinction in OT.

This paper investigates a single-phoneme approach that does not recognize the phonemic status of the vowel [ɨ]. The analyses presented in the following sections are based on palatalization processes that affect Polish coronals. It is shown that the evaluations under the single-phoneme approach lead to unwarranted exceptionality and involve extensive use of indexed constraints. These findings are subsequently juxtaposed with the results of analyses where [ɨ] is a member of the phonemic inventory to show that the existence of the segment contributes to fully predictable and regular alternations. Moreover, the analysis of Polish data motivates level distinction in Optimality Theory.