pharyngeals and the tongue root

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Eric Christopherson wrote:

> Also, what general effects do pharyngeals have on surrounding vowels? I
> remember reading that [i] became [E] and [u] became [O] in pharyngeal
> environments in some language, but I'm not sure. An explanation of why they
> are influenced that way would help as well. Thanks!
Kristian has already weighed in on this question, but I'd just
like to add that what vowels such as [E] and [O] have in common
with pharyngeals is a retracted tongue root (this is
definitional for pharyngeals). The tongue is an incompressible
mass; so if the tongue is expanded by retracting the root it's
gotta be constricted somewhere else. Often this results in
lowering of high vowels, so [i] would become [I] or even [E].

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu