Coarticulation and contrast in a vowel harmony system: coarticulatory propensity in Khalkha Mongolian V-C-V sequences

Abstract

Vowel harmony has been understood to emerge when listeners fail to perceptually compensate for acoustic variation due to coarticulation. Assuming such an account, what explains the maintenance of non-harmonic domains in the grammar? Towards understanding this, we examine coarticulation within a synchronic system with well-established patterns of harmony and non-harmony. In Khalkha Mongolian, vowels in non-compound words share the features [ATR] and [round], harmony operating in the carryover (left-to-right) direction. The high-front vowel /i/ does not participate in harmony, giving “non-harmonic” VCV sequences. We quantify coarticulatory variation by comparing dependencies in first- and second-formant frequencies (F1&F2) of vowels in harmonic vs non-harmonic VCV sequences. Unlike the former, the latter show greater coarticulation in the anticipatory (right-to-left) direction—opposite to that of vowel harmony. /i/, which is transparent to harmony, demonstrates high coarticulatory resistance. We argue that in systems where vowel harmony is well-established, synchronic patterns of coarticulatory propensity serve to limit featuresharing in non-harmonic domains.