Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

The same pattern is found in another case as well: In Neo-Aramaic there is good
evidence for phrase-final lengthening. Garbell (1965) provides intriguing information on
the realizations of word-final /a/ in the various Jewish dialects of Neo-Aramaic (once)
spoken in Persian Azerbaijan (including parts of what is now SE Turkey). In this
language /a/ is most commonly realized as [a]. In its Northern dialects, this /a/ is backed
in word-final position to []. In the speech of females in the Urmi dialect (NW Iran), it is
pronounced word-finally with rounding as []. In the Southern dialects, however, it is
lowered, backed, and nasalized: [] 106 . It is possible to understand this development in
just the same way as was proposed for Sanskrit above, with the additional possibility that
to the extent that velum lowering is an automatic consequence of the production of low
vowels, perhaps additional lowering here creates additional nasalization as well, again
enhanced perceptually by the lengthening found in final position.
In many systems, however, phrase-final nasalization affects all the vowels of the
system. This is the case in Russian, for example (Zlatoustova 1964: 44-45), where an
original assertion by Shcherba (1912) has been subjected to extensive experimental
testing and confirmed. In phrase-final position Russian vowels are nasalized for at least
106
Certainly the final vowel is undergoing some sort of enhancement of its characteristic features in final
position. The possibility of understanding all the features found here, including rounding and nasalization,
as serving the perceptual enhancement of /a/ in an environment in which a severe amplitude drop might
otherwise obscure it is intriguing. This is particularly so in light of Kingston’s (1992: 101) observation that
a small amount of nasalization will cause vowels to sound lower (though a large amount should do the
opposite). I will not, however, pursue this line of reasoning here.
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