Re: A "minimalist" phonology...

Raymond Brown sikayal:

> We often present vowels in diagrams such as squares, trapezoids
> (US)/trapeziums (Brit)* or triangles which suggest perfect symmetry in the
> mouth with as much space for front vowels as for back vowels.  In fact this
> is not so: the back vowels have less space, which is why if there is
> asymmetry, there are likely to be fewer back vowels than front vowels.
Eh?  The diagrams I've seen all show more back vowel space than front
vowel space, at least for low vowels.  That's why mid-to-back variants of
[a] are common, but a true low front vowel is rare.  It either gets raised
to [&], which isn't really low, or is central.

Although now that I think of it it certainly feels like there is more
aperture space for the front vowels.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
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