Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

actual opening of the velum, and in which there are intrinsic differences in the
articulation of non-nasal segments. What was found was a declination such as that
reported in Vayra and Fowler (1992). Here, the velum height was lower at its last peak in
the sentence than it was at its first peak. The final syllable of all the test sentences was a
stressed monosyllable, meaning that, were there a pattern even of local strengthening of
velic closure on phrase-final unstressed syllables (analogous to that detected in numerous
studies for other supralaryngeal articulations), it would not have been detected. A pattern
of declination throughout the phrase is, of course, very different from a localized jump or
drop on final unstressed syllables. Were this declination trend part of a general
weakening tendency for phrase-final material, we might reasonably expect it to result
ultimately in phonologization of the pattern in some instances. Recall that the tendency to
phrase-final devoicing is phonologized quite commonly for both final consonants and
vowels in the languages of the world. I am not aware of any phonological system, by
contrast, in which the oral/nasal contrast for consonants is neutralized word or phrase
finally in favor of the nasal 105 . This suggests that prepausal vowel nasalization may well
be the product of something other than velic weakening.
105 The reverse, however, is attested, if rare: In certain Mbam-Nkam languages of Cameroon, final nasals in
various combinations denasalize to become oral stops (Hyman 1975: 257).
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