Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

lengthening-plus-intrinsic-nasalization hypothesis proposed above should logically work
only for low vowels. There is, however, another possible explanation for the development
of phrase-final nasalization which again needs no assumption of weakening:
rhinoglottophilia (Matisoff 1975). Rhinoglottophilia, simply stated, is the propensity for
spontaneous nasalization in the environment of laryngeal (or high airflow) segments. This
is discussed by Ohala (1975), who attributes nasalization in the context of voiceless
glottal and pharyngeal consonants to the fact that an open velum would have very few
acoustic consequences for either segment type (meaning that in the absence of the
requirement of velic closure for accurate perception, none may ultimately be produced),
while for the cases of /h/ and potentially other high airflow segments such as /s/, Ohala
implicates the acoustic similarities between nasalization and the breathiness that may
accompany these segments. Specifically relevant are increased formant bandwidths, the
presence of anti-resonances in the spectrum, and a general lowering of amplitude
(Ohala1975: 303).
In the previous two sections it was demonstrated at some length that phrase-final
syllables are commonly host to both breathiness/devoicing and glottalization, and hence a
prime location in which for spontaneous nasalization to arise. In such a scenario an effect
like breathiness on a phrase-final vowel, itself there as an automatic consequence of other
factors, such as partial devoicing, could be perceived as nasalization by the listener and
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