Abstract

Mid vowels in stressed position are either closed ore open in Central Catalan, depending on a number of factors. In this paper we examine and discuss several of the proposals in the literature (general tendency towards lowering, influence of the immediate right consonantal context, lowering effect by the presence of a high front vocoid in the following syllable(s), analogical effects stemming from the existence of phonologically similar elements in the lexicon, and metapaphonic effects caused by a following unstressed mid closed vowel. These independent factors cause a certain predominance of mid open vowels in cases of indeterminacy, but a general tendency toward open mid vowels based on a tendency to increase sonority is shown to be unjustified.

Abstract

Abstract: Research on the Catalan dialects, often include mistakes in the interpretation of the Algherese vowel phonemes, and especially of the mid vowels /e, ?, ?, o/. The main goal of this study is to instrumentally evaluate the role played by the allophonic distribution of stressed vowels in the vowel space in increasing the risk of the misinterpretation of Algherese vowels by other Catalan speakers.As a result, the data obtained suggest a correlation between dialectal acoustic differences and the incorrect interpretation of Algherese vowel phonemes by non-Algherese scholars. For example, a tendency to interpret open-mid Algherese vowels as close-mid can be attributed (among otherfactors) to their realisation as perceptively higher than the corresponding ones in almost all the other varieties analysed in this study.Key words: Algherese, Catalan, vowels, segmental phonetics, phonology, Bark scale.