Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

e implicated in the development of Vowel Height Harmony in those languages.
Unfortunately, I know of no experimental results providing evidence one way or the
other. Researchers such as Hyman (1987) and Goldsmith (1982) have certainly proposed
an abstract “accent” on the stem-initial syllables of some Bantu languages. Hyman 1987,
on the basis of work by Paulian (1974) proposes an analysis of Kukuya placing an accent
on the initial mora of the stem. The accent in question is not in any way meant to indicate
that Kukuya is a “stress language”; rather, accent here is a slightly more abstract property
affecting the licensing potential of consonants and vowels and affecting tone as well. The
licensing restrictions are perhaps suggestive of phonetic strengthening, but without
explicit evidence thereof no conclusions can be drawn. One fact about Kukuya does
suggest a phonetic strengthening of accented material similar to that typically found in
stress languages: There is a postlexical variable rule (which is to say, most likely, a
phonetic process) of vowel reduction operative in Kukuya affecting material linked to an
immediately postaccentual unaccented mora (providing the following mora is also
unaccented), such that /a/ in this position is realized as schwa (Hyman 1987: 331).
Phonetic investigation into the nature of this accent could yield important results for an
understanding of the development of licensing asymmetries in Bantu.
Otherwise, it is certainly the case that initial segments in many Bantu languages
are subject to initial strengthening of some kind. I have already discussed domain-initial
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