Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

clear enough. While the neutralization is not conditioned in synchrony by the phonetic
properties of the host syllable, incidentally, the realization of the allophone of /a/
resulting from the merger is subject to some duration-dependent variation. In the first
pretonic syllable, the vowels of which are characteristically longer than other unstressed
syllables in Russian and Belorussian, /a/ is realized as [a]. In non-first-pretonic unstressed
syllables, however, contrary to the claims of many descriptions, it is realized somewhat
differently. Czekman and SmuΩkowa (1988: 226) symbolize the vowel in question as
Greek ‘α’, describing it as weaker and higher than stressed [a], and coming about via the
reduction of [a].
2.3.3. A mixed system: Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a system in which both phonologized and
unphonologized vowel reduction patterns are in evidence, though for some speakers the
phonetic pattern appears already to have become categorical. The facts of Brazilian
Portuguese vowel reduction are generally described as follows (Major 1981, 1985, Nobre
and Ingemann 1987, Simões 1991, Wetzels 1992): the stressed vowel inventory is /i, e, ,
a, , o, u/. In pretonic syllables, however, the contrast between high mid and low mid (or
tense and lax mid) is neutralized, yielding [e, o]. In posttonic syllables, the mid vowels
are eliminated entirely and /a/ is raised to schwa, yielding the inventory [i, u, ]. The
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