Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

neutralization of the contrast between nasal and oral vowels outside stressed syllables. It
is well-known that, crosslinguistically, nasalized vowels tend to be significantly longer
than their oral counterparts (Whalen and Beddor 1989). If longer duration is needed for
accurate perception of the contrast, its neutralization in shorter unstressed syllables is
understandable. Stressed vowels may also be subject to less coarticulation than unstressed
vowels, increasing the likelihood that assimilations would flow from the former to the
latter, rather than vice versa, as argued by Majors (1998) in her treatment of stress-based
harmony systems.
2.1.3. Quantity
Quantity contrasts behave somewhat schizophrenically with respect to stressed
syllables in the languages of the world. It is a commonplace that certain languages
require stressed vowels to be bimoraic, lengthening them when necessary, and thus
neutralizing the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables. This type of process
is what Smith (2002) calls augmentation, and cites as a characteristic of stressed
syllables. The idea here is that it is more important to enhance a stressed syllable’s
phonetic prominence, ensuring perception of the placement of stress than it is to maintain
segmental contrasts within the stressed syllable. It does seem clear that some languages
value the heaviness of a stressed syllable over the preservation of the contrast between
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