Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

undergo phonologization as categorical UVR. Such systems are in fact well-attested. In
fact, in addition to clear cases of phonetic vowel reduction and phonological vowel
reduction, we also find systems in which both patterns are attested together. The
following sections present case studies of each type.
2.3. Case Studies
2.3.1. The phonologization of phonetic vowel reduction: Bulgarian
The first case study I present is that of unstressed vowel reduction in Bulgarian.
Bulgarian is an especially valuable example of UVR in the continuum of its dialects from
west to east illustrates eloquently the way in which gradient phonetic patterns over time
become phonologized, yielding categorical patterns of neutralization. Some of the
westernmost dialects of Bulgarian lack qualitative vowel reduction more or less
completely. Unstressed non-high vowels are realized with qualities not overly different
from those of stressed non-high vowels. Other western dialects, such as that of the Sofia
region, have varying degrees of phonetic raising of non-high vowels, without, however,
neutralizing the relevant contrasts (at least in the case of the mid and high vowels).
Further east, the phonetic raising pattern has undergone phonologization, such that
Eastern Bulgarian has a fully developed system of categorical UVR. Details are as
follows.
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