For decades, the voicing system of Polish has been at the center of a heated theoretical debate concerning laryngeal phonology as it features a number of phenomena that constitute the core of this debate, such as Final Obstruent Devoicing, Regressive Voice Assimilation, and Progressive Voice Assimilation. As research into laryngeal phonology progresses on various fronts, it becomes more obvious that a large portion of the phenomena in question have phonetic or implementational conditioning, thus limiting the role of phonology even further. The model presented here is one in which phonology, phonetic interpretation, and phonetics find their respective homes. Paradoxically, by separating these three levels of description, we wish to integrate the disparate threads of modern research of sound patterns into one sound system.

For decades, the voicing system of Polish has been at the center of a heated theoretical debate concerning laryngeal phonology as it features a number of phenomena that constitute the core of this debate, such as Final Obstruent Devoicing, Regressive Voice Assimilation, and Progressive Voice Assimilation. As research into laryngeal phonology progresses on various fronts, it becomes more obvious that a large portion of the phenomena in question have phonetic or implementational conditioning, thus limiting the role of phonology even further. The model presented here is one in which phonology, phonetic interpretation, and phonetics find their respective homes. Paradoxically, by separating these three levels of description, we wish to integrate the disparate threads of modern research of sound patterns into one sound system.