Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

2.5.2. Experimental investigation of Russian UVR
Not only does reduction to schwa fail to occur in certain positions with
characteristically longer vowel durations, it turns out that this reduction applies to a
greater or lesser degree in all non-first-pretonic syllables as a function of the duration of
the vowel. In virtually all normal speech /a/~/o/ in positions subject to Degree 2 reduction
is indeed realized closer to schwa than it would be if it were located in the first pretonic
syllable. It reduces far less, though, in slower speech than in faster, and in deliberate,
hyperarticulated speech it is virtually identical to the corresponding first pretonic. Thus,
while reduction to schwa can be undone through hyperarticulation, as noted above, no
amount of hyperarticulation or emphasis can restore the contrast between /a/ and /o/, the
neutralization of which is truly categorical 28 .
The results of a small experimental study I have carried out illustrates the
gradient, rate-dependent nature of the reduction to schwa. To test the hypothesis, I
recorded one native speaker of Russian (born and raised in Leningrad) reading a series of
sentences designed for this purpose. These frame sentences were of the form “The word
X translates easily”, (Slovo X perevoditsja legko), such that the pretonic syllables were
some distance from both utterance boundaries 29 . Each token replacing “X” in the
28
Unstressed [o] is pronounced only in unassimilated loans in Russian, and even in most loans being
dispensed with.
29
For variety’s sake, other forms for the frame sentence, in equal numbers and randomized in the list were
“The word X sounds bad”, “The word X sounds good”, and “The word X is easy to memorize”
(zapominaetsja legko).
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