Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

If it is correct that, however, that there never was a contrast between mid and low
vowels in the unstressed syllables of East Slavic, then this issue disappears. Even under
the opposite hypothesis, though, it is still possible that the unreduced [a] of the
Belorussian pretonic syllable is a secondary development. Note that the realization of
[a]~[] in the first pretonic syllable varies substantially in both Russian and Belorussian
dialects, in some being more like a stressed /a/, and in others being reduced to one extent
or another. Again there is much dispute as to the original quality of the system, but most
scholars assume that either the one (uniform pretonic [a]) or the other (uniform pretonic
reduced [a] was original (see Chekmonas 1987 for argumentation). Timberlake (1993:
435) presents a scenario in which other, more complicated dialectal reduction patterns
can be plausibly derived if we assume the original first pretonic syllable to have
contained an ‘a’ with some degree of reduction and shortening (he writes [α]). If this is
the case, such that lengthening and lowering of the outcome of the merger of the mid and
low vowels in all first pretonic syllables is a secondary development in Standard
Belorussian, then the neutralization makes sense even as a result of ordinary duration-
driven articulatory UVR.
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