Cineradiographic Data on the Feature ‘Covered’ in Twi Vowel Harmony
-
Colin Painter
Abstract
The author examined cineradiographic tracings of 92 syllables in Twi including examples of all five tense vowels, all five lax vowels, two nasalized vowels and six long vowels in order to determine (a) whether the feature ‘covered’ is needed at all, (b) if it is not needed, whether it is merely an alternate term for tense-lax, (c) if it is needed, to what articulatory configurations it refers and (d) whether it is, in any case, the best term available. He confirms that the tense set is characterized by a widening of the pharynx but notes that it is not the case that the five tense vowels as a set have wider pharynges than all the lax vowels as a set. This is not even true of the eight non-low vowels. He concludes that the most useful way of characterizing vowel harmony in Twi is to refer to tense-lax at the level of competence and to pharynx width at the level of articulatory configuration.
verified
© 1973 S. Karger AG, Basel
