Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

Again, since the low vowel of pretonic syllables is realized somewhere between
/a/ and [a] as a function of duration, and the mid vowels apparently behave similarly, it is
unclear how to draw a clear distinction between this type of system and one like
Bulgarian. I submit that the difference between these systems is not one of formal
implementation or phonetic motivation at all, but rather merely one of degree. Durational
pressures in unstressed syllables in Italian and pretonic syllables in Brazilian Portuguese
have simply not been severe enough to condition consistent drastic raising of the non-
high vowels 23 . In the posttonic syllables of Brazilian Portuguese, which Crosswhite treats
as prominence-reducing because of the raising of the non-high vowels, as discussed
above, for some speakers this pattern is simply not phonological in the first place, while
for others durations have been low enough to cause significant raising consistently
enough that the phonetic pattern has become phonologized. If there is a serious
dichotomy to be found here, it is between the phonologized and the unphonologized
versions of a variety of processes all ultimately arising from the same phonetic pressures.
The Belorussian situation is somewhat more complex, due to the unresolved
questions discussed above surrounding the diachronic source of the mergers of the mid
23 As noted above, it is not entirely clear whether the contrast between today’s tense and lax mid vowels
was eliminated in Vulgar Latin unstressed syllables at a time when it was still primarily a quantity contrast,
or whether it had already taken on the form it has in the stressed syllables of the modern languages. Either
way, however, insufficient duration to maintain the contrast is clearly the driving force behind the merger.
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