Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

unstressed /o/ retains its rounding due to what we might call support for this from the
stressed syllable, it is only under conditions of identity with the stressed vowel that this
occurs. The rounding of stressed /u/, for example, is insufficient to allow the
harmonization that prevents the loss of rounding in the stressed vowel 125 . This support
provided by the stressed vowel to unstressed vowels of certain qualities could be
understood in some cases as a strategy for coping with durational pressures on the
realization of certain gestures. Thus, if an unstressed vowel is too short for its target
articulation to be reached, one solution is to undershoot or even alter the phonological
target. Another solution, possible in cases of identity of the relevant features would be to
realize a single token of the problem gesture over two syllables, thus providing the
necessary time to reach target. This is essentially Kaun’s (1995) notion of Uniformity, a
phonetic multiple-linking which Boyce (1990) shows to be implemented in Turkish
sequences of harmonizing round vowels (but not in similar sequences in English).
Supporting this interpretation is an intriguing note on Russian vowel reduction from
Avanesov (1968). In this work Avanesov is concerned with the norms of Contemporary
Standard Russian. In addition to describing these norms, along the way he provides
125 It is not clear, however, whether this is due to a demand for complete identity of the vowels involved, or
only a demand that they be identical in height. The only other rounded vowel in both systems is /u/, and the
facts here do correspond to the generalizations about rounding harmony made by Kaun (1993) (specifically
even that mid vowels are more likely triggers of rounding harmony than high vowels. Unfortunately in
these systems the high vowels do not reduce, so it is unclear what height restrictions might turn out to
affect potential targets).
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