Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

c. augmentative count
burikon ‘donkey’ bUrIkÚcU ‘donkey’ (pej.)
aruyón ‘big arroyo’ ArÚyU ‘arroyo’
kantón kÁntU ‘rock that has
been rounded
and worn by
water’
Again, Steriade attributes the strong licensing capacity of the final syllable to the
extra duration found in that position, duration which (Zhang adds) assists in the
perception of difficult contrasts. But is this really the case in Pasiego Spanish? A number
of facts cast suspicion on this hypothesis. First among these is the description Penny
(1969: 149) gives of the realization of final syllables in Pasiego. According to him, in
both closed and open final syllables, “the vowel sounds of pasiego speech are very
relaxed (although not as much as in Portuguese, for example) and are almost entirely
devoiced when a voiceless consonant or [rr] precedes” . In final syllables, even the tense
/u/ is realized lower (at “similar” aperture as /u/) and laxer, the difference between /U/
and /u/ now being only that the former is “centralized” while the latter is a “clear velar”.
/e/ in final position is raised (“almost an open ‘i’”), which suggests why there is no
contrast between front mid and high vowels in these syllables. Recall also from note 6
above that the masculine mass noun suffix /-u/ comes from an earlier -o. All this suggests
vowel weakening in the final syllable, perhaps if anything less duration than in other
unstressed syllables.
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