LINGUIST List 2.63

Wednesday, 6 Mar 1991

Disc: Textbook, Unstressed vowels, Phonetics font

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Re: Textbook for Graduate Linguistics
2. , Call for Info on Unstressed Vowels
3. Michael Covington, Re: Phonetics Font

Re: Introductory linguistics text for grads:

I don't think such a thing exists. However, the undergraduate text by
Akmajian, Demers, Farmer and Harnish is probably the most advanced, and
with some enhancement by lecture and additional readings could be used
for a graduate-level introduction.

Carol Georgopoulos
Linguistics Program
University of Utah.

This is a request for names of languages you know that have unstressed
vowel "systems". 

I am working on the relationship between stressed vowels and the
unstressed vowels they neutralize to (assuming that there is a
generative relationship between the two). I am looking particularly
for languages whose stressed vowels neutralize to *more than one*
unstressed vowel. Languages whose vowels are all schwa in unstressed
syllables, presumably like English in this respect, are thus of little
or no interest to this study. Languages like Catalan, however, whose
seven stressed vowels neutralize to three distinct unstressed vowels,
are exactly what I'm looking for.

Just the names of such languages would be helpful to me, but if you
have other information, such as the kinds I'm about to enumerate, I'd
appreciate your sending that along too:

1. bibliographical references to reliable grammars of the language's
phonology

2. bibliographical references to works on stress-related vowel
reduction and vowel neutralization in general

3. Does the language have (or is it reputed to have):
 a. phonological tone 
 b. "morphologicaI tone" (e.g., Serbo-Croatian)
 c. pitch accent or stress accent
 d. syllable timing or stress timing
 e. "graded" stress, i.e., secondary (tertiary?) stress in various
pretonic and posttonic positions
 f. a variety of unstressed vowel inventories depending on stress
"grade" and position relative to the primary-stressed vowel 

4. Does the language have other phonological processes involving
vowels?

5. What are the neutralization relationships between the stressed and
unstressed vowels, e.g., in Catalan: 
 u, o, O ~ u 
 a, e, E ~ schwa
 i is i

If you're interested in what I'm trying to get at with this work, my
1991 LSA paper is a summary and question-raiser. I'll send you a copy
if you ask me for it.

Thanks in advance for any information you can supply. 

Christine Kamprath

We thank the many people who have inquired. To clarify yet again:

(1) The phonetics font for laser printers is not available yet. We will
post an announcement when it is available.

(2) A font is a binary file that cannot easily be emailed. We will make
this font available via anonymous FTP. Your local computer center can
tell you how to use FTP if you do not know already. We will announce
the FTP address when the time comes.

(3) In any case, don't send inquiries to LINGUIST; send them to me.

Thanks,
Michael Covington

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Michael A. Covington internet mcovingtuga.cc.uga.edu
Artificial Intelligence Programs bitnet MCOVINGTUGA
Graduate Studies Research Center phone 404 542-0359
The University of Georgia fax 404 542-0349
Athens, Georgia 30602 bix, mci mail MCOVINGTON
U.S.A. packet radio N4TMIWB4BSG
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