Low vowels and transparency in Kinande vowel harmony

Transparency—in which a harmony effect passes over a segment without affecting it phonetically or phonologically—has been a controversial concept in previous literature on harmony systems. A typical case of so-called transparency involves cross-height vowel harmony in Kinande, a Bantu language (J.40). Previous accounts have analyzed low vowels in this system as being transparent to harmony [Schlindwein, NELS 17, 551–567 (1987)]. Further, some analysts have considered low vowels theoretically incapable of undergoing tongue root harmony. These claims were tested in a single-subject field study using ultrasound imaging to measure tongue root position in low vowels. Results indicate that (a) advanced versus retracted tongue root position (ATR) is a viable feature for describing the phonological distinction in the vowel system; (b) there is a phonetic difference between low vowels when adjacent to ATR triggering vowels; (c) this distinction in low vowels does not decrease with distance from trigger vowels, suggesting that these vowels are undergoing phonological harmony rather than phonetic assimilation; and finally, (d) the ATR distinction is phonetically categorical in high vowels, but shows crossover in mid and low vowels. Implications for phonological theory and phonetics-phonology interface will be discussed. [Work supported by NSERC and SSHRC.]