Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

lengthening the latter parts of these diphthongs were realized in such circumstances that
their accurate perception were to be hindered, a listener might perceive only the
coarticulated first half of the diphthong, and believe it to be the intended production of
the speaker, a syllable-internal umlaut of sorts. This phonologization of a raised and
fronted, or backed, raised and rounded /a/ could yield the mid vowels attested today.
3.7. Vowel Quantity in final syllables
3.7.1. Neutralization of quantity contrasts in final position
Several instances of processes affecting vowel quality have already been
discussed in this chapter, particularly the instances of mora-clipping, either through
devoicing or deletion, and the deployment of features like devoicing and glottalization in
patterns that tend to stave off the collapse of quantity contrasts by inhibiting the phonetic
processes which work against the persistence of those contrasts. For completeness sake,
and due to the relevance of certain of these patterns to wider concerns in phonological
theory (e.g. in metrical stress theory) I will now present a survey of cases in which
quantity contrasts are in fact neutralized word-finally by one means or another. The
situation turns out to be more complex that has previously been suggested in the
literature.
259