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Against a Ternary Analysis of Syllable Strength: Positional Variation in the Vowel Inventory of English
Lorber, Joseph
Lorber, Joseph
Abstract
All of the vowels in Standard American English (SAE) are distinguishable from each other in stressed syllables, and it is generally accepted that none of them are contrastive in unstressed syllables. However, unstressed word-final syllables (or ultimas) without a coda consonant are able to host more vowel contrasts than unstressed syllables, evidenced by the minimal pair [ˈwɪndi] ‘windy’ and [ˈwɪndo͡ʊ] ‘window,’ but not as many contrasts as stressed syllables. Therefore, the standard analysis of syllable strength in SAE is a ternary one, where stressed syllables are Strong, unstressed non-final syllables are Weak, and unstressed open ultimas are Intermediate. This work posits a binary analysis of syllable strength instead, arguing that word-final syllables can host as many vowels as stressed syllables can. The Intermediate strength level of the stressless open ultima is abandoned here; “Strong” syllables are tonics and ultimas, and “Weak” syllables are any other. The absence of lax vowels in word final position is motivated from a distributional and historical account, and tested experimentally. The reanalysis of vowel contrast hosting is consistent with several accepted facts about the phonology of English. The main contribution of this work is to unify these facts for a better explanation of the absence of lax vowels in word-final position.
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2024-04-01
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Linguistics