LINGUIST List 3.225

Sat 07 Mar 1992

Disc: Long Vowels, Raising

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. John Goldsmith, Re: 3.198 Queries: Long Vowels, Flapping, Aphasia
2. Ellen Kaisse, Raising

Message 1: Re: 3.198 Queries: Long Vowels, Flapping, Aphasia

On long vowels in non-final syllables, there are a number of Bantu
languages (such as KiRundi) where vowels adjacent to word-boundaries
can't be long, but all others can. This affects the vowel of every
final syllable, since all words end in a vowel, and it affects those
words that begin with a vowel (though that's a minority of the
words).

John Goldsmith

My Montreal dialect has clear raising in writer, optional raising
in cider (to my surprise!), and no raising in tiger, hide, or rider.
I THINK I have a contrast between cider, where raising is
optional and spider, where it is conceivable but highly unlikely.
But it's hard to keep my non-naivete out of it.
So what's going on Alexis? Have I lexicalized spider with a /d/
but cider with a /t/ OR a /d/??