Some constraint definitions:

Problem. Most researchers agree that there is some principle or constraint on Syllable Contact, expressing the preference for a coda to exceed a following onset in sonority: al.ta f at.la (Murray and Vennemann 1983). A popular theory of Syllable Contact, the Two-Constraint Theory, has just two constraints: the first prevents sonority from rising (an.ma f at.na), the second requires sonority to drop (an.ta f am.na) (Bat-El 1996, Davis 1998, Rose 2000). I argue that this theory of Syllable Contact is both too restrictive and too liberal: it does not capture the full range of phenomena, and it must often resort to powerful language-specific constraints. This paper looks closely at the cross-linguistic properties of Syllable Contact phenomena and develops a unified, universal theory of Syllable Contact in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). Proposal. Syllable Contact is proposed to be a universal constraint hierarchy entailing that the markedness of a coda-onset sequence increases with sonority rise and decreases with sonority drop, as shown in (1). The highest sonority rise (as in at.wa) is universally most marked. Flat sonority (am.na or ap.ta) is less marked, and the highest sonority drop is least marked (as in aw.ta)