Abstract: Kawaiisu distinguishes between six vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/, and a vowel often represented in the literature as /ɨ/. However, some disagreement surrounds the phonetic quality of this sixth vowel. Klein (2002) argues that it is phonetically high and central, while Zigmond et al. (1990) hold that it is high and back. I examine archival data to offer an instrumental analysis of the Kawaiisu vowel system, arguing that this vowel is phonetically central, roughly between the front and back vowels. Further, the data indicate that it falls roughly between the high and mid vowels, spanning the range between the lowest high vowels and the highest mid vowels. I therefore argue that this vowel is more accurately described as a mid-high central vowel and may be represented by the IPA symbol [ɘ].
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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