The contrastive hierarchy in phonology 2009 Dresher.pdf - CUNY ...

(7.17) Stems with only /i/: Suffixes with non-ATR vowels
a. /a/ in suffix, not /´/
fili ‘solid’ fili-qan ‘somewhat solid’
ili- ‘stand’ ili-Xa ‘stood’
b. /U/ in suffix, not /u/
sifi- ‘stick in the hair’ sifi-qU ‘hairpin’
tß'ili- ‘to choke’ tß'ili-qU ‘choking’
Despite the fact that it is phonetically an ATR vowel, /i/ does not trigger ATR
harmony. This fact is explained if we posit the contrastive specifications in (7.12),
together with the hypothesis that only contrastive values of [ATR] trigger
harmony.
The failure of /i/ to trigger ATR harmony is particularly striking given
the observation that front high vowels tend to be associated with [ATR], because
the gestures required to make a high front vowel are compatible with an
advanced tongue root and antagonistic to a retracted tongue root (see Archangeli
and Pulleyblank 1994 for discussion and references). While this tendency can
account for why /i/ lacks an [RTR] partner, we would expect that /i/, as the
ATR vowel par excellence, should trigger ATR harmony if any vowel does. The
fact that it does not strengthens the argument that its contrastive status is the key
to its neutrality.
7.4.1.2. Labial harmony
Another vowel harmony process in Classical Manchu is labial harmony. A suffix
vowel /a/ becomes /ç/ if preceded by two successive /ç/ vowels (7.18a), but
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