Re: Vocalic patterns & BrSc

Pavel Iosad wrote:
(replying to Ray Brown)
>> Dirk's syllabary (which I've always found attractive) means only one
>> contrast of tongue height: high ~ low.  In Dirk's original
>> scheme there was
>> a three dimensional contrast at both hights, thus:
>>               /i/ --- /1/ --- /u/
>>                |       |       |
>>                |       |       |
>>               /e/ --- /a/ --- /o/
>>
>> Now I find, in fact, that 3x2 distributions like this seem
>> pretty uncommon.
>
>Another one is found in Bulgarian. The phonemic distinctive features are
>front ~ back and open~close
>
>/i/-----/@/-----/u/
>/e/----/a/------/o/
>
It's also the system of Malay/Indonesian and some of its relatives.  In
Malay, the "high" central vowel is usually [@] and is never stressed.  In
Bugis, where it can be stressed, it varies between [1] and [@].