Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

their realizations, determined by both consonantal and vocalic environment (Schuh and
Yalwa 1999). Whether or not this variation is ultimately neutralizing as per Steriade 1994
is another matter. The possibly conservative description of Carnochan (1988) makes no
mention of such a neutralization, transcribing these vowels as somewhat centralized []
and []. Steriade cites Schuh (1971) for the neutralization data. Schuh and Yalwa (1999),
however, say the following (p. 90):
Short /i/ may thus range across [i - - ], and short /u/ may range across [u - -
]. In normal conversational speech, medial short high vowels are probably
frequently neutralized to a high, centralized vowel, with rounding or lack of
rounding determined by environment.
Newman (2000: 398-399), noting the variation and in some cases overlap in the
realizations of these vowels, nonetheless argues that they are still phonologically distinct,
if perhaps on the way to an ultimate merger. There is a serious difference, in other words,
between segments whose realizations are frequently overlapping to some extent and those
which are actually phonologically neutralized. What we seem to be dealing with in Hausa
here is a gradient process akin, for example, to the gradient neutralization of back mid
and high vowels in the unstressed syllables of Standard Bulgarian discussed in the
previous chapter. The merger would thus be ill-characterized as the neutralization of the
categorical phonological features [back] and [round].
129