Abstract
Some languages allow tense and lax vowels to contrast before word-final consonants but not word-finally, where only tense vowels are permitted. What is the motivation for this pattern? This paper proposes that the loss of vowel-duration contrasts in word-final positions is a phonetic precursor to word-final tensing. In languages where tense and lax vowels differ both spectrally and temporally, neutralization of duration contrasts in word-final positions results in tense-lax pairs differing only spectrally. If this spectral difference is not sufficient to support a phonemic contrast, the tense-lax contrast is neutralized altogether. The preference for tense vowels in case of neutralization can be explained as a preference for more distinct vowel contrasts in the F1xF2 space. Evidence for this account comes from an acoustic study of Swiss French showing that, although tense-lax contrasts are maintained both before word-final consonants and word-finally in this variety, they are signaled by temporal cues only before word-final consonants. While Dispersion-Theoretic analyses of vowel inventories tend to focus on F1 and F2, the present analysis suggests that distinctiveness along both spectral and temporal dimensions is relevant to understand the typology of phonological patterns.
Highlights
Cross-linguistically, vowel systems commonly distinguish between two sets of vowels: tense and lax
Following Storme (2019), we propose that tense vowels are preferred to lax vowels because they are more peripheral in the F1×F2 space (e.g. French: Jakobson et al, 1952:36-39; English: Stevens, 1998:296; Javanese: van Zanten, 1989:72; Quebec French: Martin, 2002; etc.), allowing for better vowel discrimination by listeners
C# for the contrast between [o] and [O] before word-final consonants. 3.3.1 F1 As expected, lax vowels were found to have significantly higher F1 values than the corresponding tense vowels (81.1±4.7 Hz; t=17.4, p
Summary
Cross-linguistically, vowel systems commonly distinguish between two sets of vowels: tense and lax. Tense and lax vowels may differ along other dimensions. In a small acoustic study focusing on the C# context, Miller & Grosjean (1997) found that [o]-[O] differ both spectrally and temporally, as in Standard French. The results of these two studies support the hypothesis of a greater distinctiveness of [o]-[O] in C# (where both spectral and temporal cues are available) than in # (where only spectral cues are available). This hypothesis needs to be further confirmed by a direct comparison of the contrast in the two contexts for the same group of speakers. This was the goal of the study reported
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