Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

(45) [pHa»pHatja] chamomile
Here the strong aspiration of the initial labial stop is clear. It is in fact substantially
stronger than that found in the onset of the stressed second syllable 121 . The longer
duration of the second vowel is due to syllable structure, closed syllables hosting longer
vowels than open syllables in Turkish (Kopkallı-Yavuz 2001, Barnes 2001b. I suspect
that it is this initial-consonant strengthening, combined with the vocalic effect presented
below, with is being heard and interpreted as an initial “dynamic stress” in Modern
Turkish by some scholars, as detailed above. The fact that it continues to occur in words
like [pHa»pHatja], where the adjacent penult is unequivocally stressed (or receives what
Johanson would call the pitch accent and possibly “dynamic stress” as well 122 ), makes it
unlikely that an accent or secondary stress is somehow involved. Given the generality of
121
In Turkish as in English, both word-initial and stressed-syllable-initial voiceless stops receive strong
aspiration.
122
See Konrot (1981) for discussion of the possibility that while Turkish final stress is cued solely by F0,
the non-final stress of borrowings and toponyms may actually be cued by both pitch and amplitude (though
not duration).
316