Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

in the data makes it impossible to distinguish the effect of the initiality of the syllable
from that of its stressedness. Fixed stress languages tend not to have strongly duration-
cued stress, which explains why most of the languages in question have not developed
UVR systems of the type discussed in chapter 2. It will be argued below, on the other
hand, that the smaller durational asymmetries characteristic of languages with fixed stress
can actually give rise to vowel harmony, precisely the form initial-syllable strength
effects almost always take (Uralic, Turkic, Tungusic, Mongolian, Niger-Congo). That not
all of the relevant languages have initial stress synchronically is irrelevant to the
phonologization approach to the typology of positional neutralization, assuming initial
stress in the parent language at the point at which the licensing asymmetry first arose. As
demonstrated in numerous cases in chapters 2 and 3, the phonetic effects associated with
the syllables in question are relevant only at the very point at which phonologization
takes place. That such effects were present then (e.g. that Proto-Uralic or Proto-Turkic
had both initial stress and palatal harmony) is enough to account for the existence of the
pattern. Once phonologized, of course, the licensing asymmetries cease to be dependent
on the phonetics for their existence, and may continue to exist even in the event of radical
changes to the phonetics of the language (e.g. shifts of stress away from the initial
syllable. This is in fact the standard account of the development of restrictions on vowel
licensing outside initial syllables in Latin). Such cases receive their “accounting” as part
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