125 of a high vowel in the stem-initial syllable, [-ATR] cannot be left-aligned, and if [-ATR]
cannot associate to left, then it also cannot associate to the vowel to the right that is, to the second syllable.
A final note concerning high vowels is that they are not altered by any surrounding vowels; they do not become [-ATR] when adjacent to [-ATR] vowels. Also,
the gap for the sequence [i…u] is unexplained, since it should in principle be a possibility in any type of [ATR] or height harmony system.
4.2 Mid vowel raising
Stems with underlying or at least historical [-ATR] mid vowels in V1 position have interesting behavior when they are followed by the high vowels i u.
54
Short [-ATR] mid vowels become [+ATR] before i u. The pattern is arguably categorical, causing
neutralization of the mid vowel [ATR] contrast preceding all high vowels. The pattern is different, however, with long vowels. Long mid vowels are not consistently raised.
Instead, there is only gradient, phonetic raising of both phonemic and compensatorily lengthened long vowels. In §4.2.1, I give examples of the short vowel patterns. I begin
with pairs of related words which show raising of [-ATR] vowels before [i u]. I then show acoustic data which suggests that this raising is in fact clear and neutralizing. In
§4.2.2 I discuss gradient raising of long vowels.
4.2.1 Categorical raising of short vowels
In the previous section, we saw that only the mid vowels [e o] occur before [i u], and I suggested that this neutralization of the [ATR] contrast was the result of raising of .
The pairs of words in 96 below give strong evidence that there are [+ATR] V1 vowels
54
Evidence of underlying [-ATR] value is found in prefix alternations and occasionally by comparison to related words with the same root, as shown below. What makes the behavior interesting is the fact that this
type of raising is not expected in a language with Ikoma’s vowel inventory.
126 which are either historically or underlyingly . In each of the four pairs below, I show
a noun followed by a clearly-related infinitive verb. 96
Related words showing vowel alternations 7
8 6
2 8
9 -7
= 8
.7 2
8 - 2
7 8
8 8 In all four pairs, the verb’s root vowel is [-ATR] and the infinitive prefix is high, as is
expected see Chapter 5 for description of prefix alternations. However, in each of the nominal forms, the high V2 causes raising of V1, resulting in [e o]. Despite the V1
alternation to a [+ATR] vowel, the prefix is still high, giving a clue of the underlying form of the root.
Additional examples of mid vowels raised by following high vowels are in 97 below, with front root vowels in a and back root vowels in b.
97 Nouns with raised mid-vowels
7 9
8 8
6 =
8
127 -7
8 2
8 9
8 .8
8 -
In the nouns above, once again the prefixes are high, which is indicative of a [-ATR] stem vowel,
55
even though the mid vowels are actually pronounced as the [+ATR] vowels [e o]. As is discussed further in §5.1.1, prefix harmony more accurately called
“dissimilation” is of a very different nature than stem or suffix harmony, since it is triggered by [-ATR] vowels and is realized as a change in vowel height. Therefore, I
suggest that stem harmony spreads only to the left edge of the stem and does not affect the prefix. See §5.1.1 for more discussion.
Concerning the mid-vowel raising, an important point to be clear about is whether or not the assimilation is categorical and thus neutralizing, or if it is only gradient or
partial assimilation. Auditorily, all mid vowels preceding [i u] sound the same. These auditory impressions are verified by vowel formant analysis. T-tests also show that the
difference in F1 between underlying and e o vowels in this environment is not statistically significant. All acoustic measurements in this chapter are from sound
recordings of Speaker A. In order to determine whether or not the mid-vowel contrast is truly neutralized, it
is necessary to measure both underlying [+ATR] and [-ATR] mid vowels in the same
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Note that some of the words in this list have non-alternating prefixes, such as the class 5 nouns [e i- e u] and [e i- oti], and the class 9 noun [an-t óki]. Though I do not have related forms to indicate the underlying
vowel, and though the prefixes of these nouns do not alternate, comparing these words with neighboring languages was used as an indicator of likely historicalunderlying forms. For example, in neighboring
Zanaki, each of these three words have underlying as initial stem vowels.
128 environment, that is, preceding high vowels. Therefore, in addition to measuring a
number of raised roots, I also measured root vowels from a number of words which are clearly underlyingly [+ATR]. The words measured are shown in 98 below.
98 Underlyingly [+ATR] mid-vowel stems
7 .7 7 8
2 : .7 7 8
2 : -7
8 9
.7 7 8 8
9 2 .
.7 7 - :
- The related words shown in the right column in 98 above are evidence of the underlying
[+ATR] quality of the V1 vowels. Therefore, the initial stem vowels in the nominal forms in the left column are [+ATR] underlyingly, not simply pronounced as [+ATR] because
of effects from the following high vowels. The table in 99 below gives average formant values of all four mid vowels in
both raised and unraised environments in the speech of Speaker A. The basic unraised averages in the left column of the table are from noun stems with identical vowels. The
vowels in the right column of the table, which are followed by a plus sign e.g. e+, indicate measurements from nouns in which V2 is [i] or [u]. For example, the symbol “
+” signifies vowels which are underlyingly but which are followed by a high vowel and are thus raised to [e]. All measurements are from initial vowels of bisyllabic noun
stems.
99 Average
R R
R R
M MM
M +3
+
These values are plotte 100
Vowel p
As the plot shows, basi raised counterparts are
before [i u] represente corresponds to a phone
basic e. Similarly, bas scale, but when occu
vowel. The back vowel are thus both comparab
age formant values of mid vowels in “raised” an N
N N
N M
MM M
G 8 G 8
G 8 G 8
M MM
M +
W W
W W
+ W
W W
W 0 3
3 W
W W
W 03
3 W
W W
W 3
tted in 100 below. el plot showing raised and unraised mid vowels
asic e and are clearly separated along the F re nearly identical to one another. All front mid
nted as + and e+ in the plot have a lower F1 a netically higher vowel, which is in fact lower t
basic, i.e. unraised, and o are clearly separa ccurs in a raised environment, the vowel surfac
els which occur before [i u] represented as + rable to the speaker’s basic [o].
129 and “unraised” contexts
M MM
M G 8
G 8 G 8
G 8 3
3 +
s Speaker A
F1 scale, but their id vowels which occur
1 average which er than the average for
arated along the F1 aces as a much higher
+ and o+ in the plot,
The F1 average a difference of only 2 H
In order to answer the q helpful to see how muc
showing significant ov u.
101 Plot of i
This degree of o contrast before high vo
in t-test results, shown differences between the
difference is not signifi ges for raised i.e. + and raised e i.e. e+
2 Hz. The difference is slightly greater for the b e question of whether or not these vowels have
uch individual tokens overlap. A plot is given i overlap of individual tokens of underlying e
f individual tokens of mid vowels before [i u]
of overlap is highly suggestive of neutralization vowels in bisyllabic roots. Further support for t
n in 102 below. The table shows the probabil the two sets of measurements is only due to cha
ificant NS. 130
e+ are very close, with e back vowels 17 Hz.
ve neutralized, it is n in 101 below
o vowels before i
on of the mid vowel r this analysis is found
bility that any chance, i.e. that the
131 102
T-test on F1 of mid-vowels before [i u]
Probability e –
NS .82
o - NS
.24 Using the standard cut-off of .05, we see that the results for both front and back vowels
indicate that there is a high probability that the difference between the two measurement sets is not significant NS. In other words, there is an 82 chance that the difference
between raised e and raised is due to chance, and that these sets of measurements represent the same entity. Therefore, these tests show that the assimilation of before i
u is a feature-changing process. By the end of the phonology component of the grammar, i.e. when phonetic implementation rules are applied, underlying and e have the same
representation as [+ATR] mid vowels. For the back vowels, the t-test calculates that there is a 24 chance that the
difference between the raised mid vowels is due to chance, which means that there is a 76 chance that they represent different entities. Though the probability that the
difference is not significant is less for the back vowels, it is still above the significance standard of 5 probability, and the individual tokens do show a large degree of overlap.
Therefore, I conclude that are both fully assimilated to e o when they precede the high vowels i u.
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Since this change is from [-ATR] to [+ATR], and since the triggering high vowels are also [+ATR], I propose that the raising is a result of leftward spreading
of [+ATR] from the final high vowel.
56
It is interesting to note that in verbs, [+ATR] spreading only categorically affects , and raising is only gradient. Though I think that we can rightly interpret raising here to be categorical, it is interesting
that the t-tests are less conclusive for the back vowels than the front vowels.
132 Another point can now be noted. If it is indeed true that [+ATR] spreads leftward
from high vowels, then the logical question to ask is whether or not it spreads from [+ATR] mid vowels as well. In principle, this type of evidence would confirm that the
raising is indeed related to [ATR] and not height. However, clear evidence suggesting spreading from e o has not been found in noun stems. In order to find convincing
evidence, we would ideally need pairs similar to those in 96 above, in which there is a clear relationship between a [-ATR] mid vowel verb stem and a corresponding [+ATR]
stem with [e] or [o] as the second stem vowel. We would expect the prefix of both words to be high as well, resulting in a noun such as the hypothetical [omu-keme], from the
hypothetical underlying root -k m-. Until evidence like this is found, we cannot confirm that spreading from mid vowels exists. Note, however, that we do see spreading from
[+ATR] mid vowels in verbs, triggered by the subjunctive suffix -e see §6.2 for examples. This type of evidence provides strong support for [+ATR] spreading, because
it shows that the vowels i e u all trigger the same assimilatory process, and they form a natural class of [+ATR] vowels.
4.2.2 Gradient raising of long vowels
