Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

As for the non-high vowels in pretonic position, here there is no contrast between
/a/ and /o/. Their realizations can be summarized as follows: where the tonic and
posttonic are /o/, all contiguous pretonic non-highs vowels are realized as [o]. Where the
tonic and posttonic are not [o] (or the pretonic non-high vowel is separated from these by
a high vowel), pretonic high vowels are realized as /a/. Kroeger (1992) follows Prentice
in seeing restrictions on the realization of [o], and also a right-to-left harmony pattern
triggered by the combined presence of [o] in the tonic and posttonic syllable, a rounding
harmony with a bisyllabic trigger rather like that treated by Walker (to appear) for
Classical Manchu and Tungusic. As seen in (a) above, [round] does not spread from the
posttonic to the tonic. The harmony pattern is shown in (22), where in (a) and (b),
addition of a suffix without [o] causes preceding high vowels to become [a], and in [c]
the leftward spread of [round] from the stressed syllable and posttonic.
(22) Rounding harmony with a bisyllabic trigger in Timugon Murut
a. orop + an -> arapan ‘perch’ (Referent Focus)
ongoy + an -> angayan ‘go’ (RF)
in + abot + an -> inabatan ‘belt’ (RF, past tense)
b. tanom + in -> tanamin ‘plant’ (RF)
ongoy + in -> angayin ‘go’ (Locative Focus)
sigo + in -> sigain ‘spy on’
c. tanom + on -> tonomom ‘plant’ (Object Focus)
patoy + on -> potoyon ‘kill’ (OF)
pa + sakoy + on -> posokoyon ‘cause to mount’
mapa + ongoy -> mopoongoy
181
‘cause to go’