On the evolution of prosodic boundaries – Parameter settings for Polish and English

•Onset Prominence parameters govern boundary formation in Polish and English.•Derivation of language-specific differences in prosodic constituency.•The appearance of Prosodic boundaries is predictable.•Manner of articulation as a prosodic specification in Onset Prominence representations.

Phonological descriptions often make reference to prosodic boundaries without exploring the origins of those boundaries. In the Onset Prominence representational framework, prosodic boundaries fall out from the same mechanisms that govern word-internal phonology. These mechanisms are parametric. Opposing settings for these parameters in Polish and English allow for a unified analysis of apparently diverse phonological phenomena including cluster phonotactics, the behavior of post-vocalic consonants, the realization of word-initial vowels, and the application or non-application of external sandhi.