Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

ack” (Kroeger 1992: 280). Kroeger even refers to it as “the neutral vowel” in
Kimaragang. None of this is unexpected, though, in light of a second consideration: the
historical source of /o/ in most cases in the languages in question is *PAN // (Robert
Blust, p.c.).
While the system of realizations of the pretonic vowels differ significantly among
some of the languages in question, Timugon Murut shares with Dusunic Kimaragang its
distribution of [o] in the penultimate and final syllables (Kroeber 1992). This is the older
part of the system, the pretonic harmony being secondary. It is the development of this
part of the system, additionally, which gives the lie to the assumption that the final is in
some way prosodically stronger than the tonic, or that rounding has some need to be
anchored to the word edge (as Walker argues for Oroqen). Facts of the emergence of the
distribution of [o] in these positions are the following (*PAN and *Proto-Malayo-
Polynesian reconstructions from Blust 1999, 2000, Dusunic Tatana’ forms from
Pekkanen 1993, Kadazan/Dusun from Miller 1993): *PAN // becomes /o/ regularly in
final syllables.
(23) *PAN // in the Murutic and Dusunic final syllables
*PMP tanm > TM tanom ‘plant’
*PAN qaNb > Tatana’ aob ‘door’
*PAN Sips > Tatana’ lipos ‘cockroach’
*PMP nipn > Tatana’ dipon ‘tooth’
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