Ekialdeko /o/-ren igoeraren testuinguru fonologikoaren bila / Looking for the phonological context of /o/-raising in Eastern Basque

Abstract

In this paper I analyze the raising of the mid back vowel /o/ in Basque. This sound pattern is primarily found in Zuberoan and Roncalese, although it is present, to a lesser degree, in other eastern Basque dialects. After compiling examples of this process and specifying its context, I will propose that this process is more accurately described as raising of phonetically nasalized [õ]. This sound change is accounted for by means of the phonetic ambiguity in vowel height inherent to nasalization. This ambiguity is caused by the addition of «nasal formants» to the F1 space. In short, this paper analyzes a sound pattern that cannot be easily accounted for by means of phonological description but is straightforwardly explained in phonetic terms, emphasizing the importance of phonetics in historical and phonological research.