Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

is illustrative, but by no means exhaustive. It is followed by subsections discussing
common characteristics of Final Resistance patterns and the ramifications of these for the
places of phonetic and psycholinguistic factors in an account of final strength effects
(20) Reduction or assimilation-resistant final syllables
a. Russian (Slavic) (Matusevic 1976: 96-120, Zlatoustova 1962: 109-139)
Maximal inventory: [i, e, a, o, u, ]
Reduction processes: Basic facts (See chapter 2 for some additional details)
In first pretonic syllables, /a/, /o/ -> []
In first pretonic syllables following C, /a/, /e/, /i/ -> [i]
Other unstressed syllables: /a/, /o/ -> []
Other syllables following C, /a/, /e/, /i/ -> []
Resistance: In phrase-final open syllables, /a/, /o/ -> / [], as in first pretonic
syllables (also associated with more duration than other unstressed syllables).
Following palatalized consonants, /i/, /e/ -> /i/ but /a/ -> approx. [æ]
Conditions: Phrase-final only. Phrase-internal final vowels are often extremely weak,
prone to devoicing or deletion. Reduction to [] is gradient in all cases (see Chapter
2). Phrase-final /a/ and /o/ often described as somewhere between the first and second
degrees of reduction. Rate-dependent, greater reduction likely in fast speech or less
“conscientious” style.
b. Belorussian (Slavic)(Czekman and SmuΩkowa 1988: 223-234)
Maximal inventory: [i, e, a, o, u]
Reduction processes: Basic facts (See chapter 2 for additional discussion)
In first pretonic syllables, /a/, /o/ /e/ -> [a]
In other pretonic syllables, /a/, /o/, /e/ -> [] 58
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Some descriptions of Belorussian do not note the raising of the low vowel in the reduced system of
oppositions outside the first pretonic syllable, and also claim that /e/ outside the first pretonic is realized as
[e], curiously reversing its merger with /a/ and /o/ in a phonetically-less-prominent syllable than the one in
which the merger takes place. These descriptions are apparently based on the spelling norms of the
Belorussian literary language, and do not reflect phonetic reality (Czekman and SmuΩkowa 1988: 229-230).
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