Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

Bulgarian has six vowels in stressed syllables: /i, e, a, â, o, u/. In unstressed
syllables in Eastern Bulgarian, the mid vowels raise to neutralize with the high vowels as
[i] and [u]. The low vowel /a/ raises to merge with /â/ as []. I use the standard
transcription symbol ‘â’ to transcribe the non-low central vowel of Bulgarian. Many
scholars transcribe it as //, which unfortunately gives the impression that this vowel is
qualitatively identical to the unstressed vowel representing the merger of /a/ and /â/ in
most dialects. Crosswhite (2001),for example, assumes on this basis that stressed /â/ is
featureless, with its realization interpolated between the gestural targets of adjacent
segments. In fact, however, the stressed realization of this vowel and the unstressed
vowel representing the merger of /a/ and // are not identical in quality. The phonetician
and dialectologist Vladimir Zhobov of Kliment Oxridski University in Sofia describes it
(personal communication) more in the direction of cardinal vowel 15 ([]). The
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences grammar edited by Tilkov (1982: 50) shows a clear
degree of constriction in the velar region present in the case of stressed // and absent for
its unstressed counterpart. Of the unstressed vowel relative to the stressed, Tilkov says
the unstressed version “is characterized by a greater openness of the oral cavity, such that
the tongue has a lower position, and thus a greater degree of closure in the pharyngeal
cavity” (Tilkov 1982: 50). Of its acoustic characteristics, he continues, “this change in
articulatory configuration is reflected spectrally through a concentration of acoustic
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