Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

inventories”, the only other option for an inventory smaller than /i, u, a/ but retaining
some contrast still 9 . The final option of course is the neutralization of all vowel contrasts,
as in Saanich (Straits Salish, Montler 1986, Urbanczyk 1999), where nearly all unstressed
vowels are realized as schwa.
In section 2.2 below I will argue that the predominance of height-contrast
neutralizations in UVR systems follows directly from the phonetic characteristics of the
systems in question. The virtual non-existence of systems based on the neutralization of
front/back, round, or ATR contrasts is furthermore predicted under the phonologization
approach, since except in the most extreme cases of durational contraction of unstressed
syllables, these contrasts are not threatened phonetically to the extent that height contrasts
are. While the phonologization approach predicts that the UVR analogues of palatal,
rounding, or ATR harmonies should be rare, by no means does it preclude their existence
entirely. This is because while the phonologization approach accounts for typological
regularities in the patterning of PN systems through an understanding of the phonetic
circumstances which give rise to them, a central tenet of the approach is that once
phonologized, the developmental logic of the systems in question ceases to be phonetic in
9 Another example of this neutralization pattern, in its slightly idealized form outlined in Steriade 1994, is
that of word-medial short vowels in Hausa. See section 3.2.2.1 below for details.
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