[low]

Counterpart

[nonlow]

Feature System

Definition

The feature [+low] describes phones produced while lowering the tongue body below the level that it maintains in the neutral position, which is raised and fronted. Sounds that are [-high] or nonhigh exhibit no such raising. Sounds cannot be [+low] and [+high] simultaneously because the tongue cannot be lowered and raised in unison (Chomsky & Halle 1968:304).

For the use of [low] as a tonal feature, see [low tone].

Purpose

The feature [low] aims to “characterize the placement of the body of the tongue” in the oral cavity (Chomsky & Halle 1968:304). Among vowels, it distinguishes low vowels from mid and high vowels.

In Chamorro (Topping 1968, Kenstowicz & Kisseberth 1979:62-65), the low vowels /ä/ and /a/ neutralize to [ə] when unstressed, while front vowels /i, e/ alternate with [ɪ], and /u, o/ alternate with [ʊ] when unstressed, e.g. dágʊ ‘yam’ and i dəɡúhu ‘my yam’.

Furthermore, [low] characterizes pharyngeal sounds, which involve a relatively low tongue position, contrasting with consonants articulated with a higher tongue body position. This predicts a patterning of these sounds along with low vowels, and we find this in the lowerinɡ of Classical Arabic i lowered to a in the environment of a pharyngeal consonant, e.g. (Brame 1970:161). We also see

this in Tiberian Hebrew’s rule of Guttural Lowering, in which any vowel followed by a tautosyllabic pharyngeal lowers to a, e.g. /šameʕ/ ⟶ [šaːmaʕ] ‘he

heard’ (McCarthy 1994:211-212). Kenstowicz & Kisseberth (1979:250) note

the phonetic inappropriateness of using [low] for low tongue position in glottalsʔ and h.

History

Jakobsonian features employed [grave], [compact], and [diffuse] to describe both vowels and consonants. [diffuse] described vowels and consonants in regard to height and anteriority. Chomsky and Halle (1968) considered this too radical an approach, and thus introduced the distinctive feature [low] to describe tongue body placement as a replacement for [compact] (Chomsky & Halle 1968:306-307).

References

Brame, Michael K. 1970. Arabic phonology: Implications for phonological theory and historical Semitic. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.

Chomsky, Noam; and Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.

Kenstowicz, Michael, and Charles Kisseberth. 1979. Generative phonology: Description and theory. San Diego: Academic Press.

McCarthy, John. 1994. The phonetics and phonology of Semitic pharyngeals. Phonological structure and phonetic form: Papers in Laboratory Phonology III, ed. by Patricia A. Keating, 191-233. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Topping, Donald. 1968. Chamorro vowel harmony. Oceanic Linguistics 7.67-69.

Author

Allon Boettcher