Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

ackness of non-initial vowels is generally determined by the frontness or backness
specification of the initial vowel. This is illustrated in (41) using several monosyllabic
roots and suffixes.
(41) gøzlerim dostla»rµm dZanla»rµm dZeple»rim
eye-pl-1sg friend-pl-1sg soul-pl-1sg pocket-pl-1sg
‘my eyes’ ‘my friends’ ‘my souls’ ‘my pockets’
Given the lack of initial stress in Modern Turkish, if we are to assume that this pattern is
ultimately the result of the phonologization of some phonetic characteristics of Turkish
initial syllables, we must seek those phonetic characteristics in some other aspect of
Turkish prosody, such as the implementation of initial strengthening.
4.5.1. Initial syllables in English
The first experiment to be presented here was designed as a control to see that the
results of the methods employed here matched those of Fougeron and Keating 1996 and
Byrd 2000, who demonstrated a lack of initial strengthening for initial-syllable vowels in
English. Keating and Fougeron 1996 demonstrated that in English vowel duration is
strongly correlated with degree of jaw opening. In my experiments here I analyze only
the durations of initial-syllable vs. second-syllable vowels. No articulatory measures were
collected.
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