[flat]

Counterpart

[plain]

Feature System

Definition

The feature [flat] manifests itself acoustically as the downward shift of some or all formants in the spectrum. Articulatorily, it is produced by narrowing the lip orifice (rounding) with concomitant lengthening of lip construction. The authors note that the [flat]/[plain] distinction has been “genetically termed ‘orifice variation’” (Jakobson, Fant, & Halle 1952). It may also be produced through constriction in the pharynx, resulting in pharyngealization.

Purpose

The feature [flat] is used to describe rounded vowels and pharyngealization. [Flat] vowels are rounded, compared to their nonrounded counterparts. Turkish round vowels /u, y, o, œ/ are [flat], while non-round /i, ɨ, e, a/ are the non-flat ([plain]) equivalents. Pharyngealized consonants are [flat], while non-pharyngealized consonants are [plain]. The phonological validity of this feature invoked Bantu and Uzbek substitution of Arabic pharyngealized consonants with labialized ones in loanwords, demonstrating their acoustic similarity.

History

The feature was first introduced by Jakobson, Fant, & Halle (1952:31) as one of several tonality features, along with [grave], [acute], and [sharp]. Tonality features are one type of resonance feature. [flat] has its origin as a term in music, and JFH employ the musical flat symbol ♭ in several of their examples.

JFH claimed that pharyngealized and rounded sounds do not occur in the same language and were thus two variants of a single [flat] vs. [plain] opposition. They further claimed that there was no need for distinct phonetic symbols for rounded [t̼] and pharyngealized [ t̴ ] consonants.

McCawley (1967) refuted the possibility of conflating rounding and pharyngealization by noting that Arabic vowels are pharyngealized adjacent to pharyngealized consonants. The formalization of a rule would require that [flat] refer be interpreted as pharyngealized when applied to a consonant or a front or low vowel, as rounded when applied to a high back vowel, and as rounded and pharyngealized when applied to a high back vowel. This critique eliminated the feature from use in Chomsky & Halle’s (1968) The sound pattern of English. However, some, especially in Europe, continued to use [flat], e.g. Fant (1983), which also proposes the feature [extra flat].

Another argument against the feature is the existence of labialized pharyngeals, e.g. in Coeur D’Alene /ʕʷ/ (Doak 1997) or /ħʷ/ in Abkhaz (Bghazhba 1964). These contradict the prediction that rounding and pharyngealization are complementary, while in those languages they are simultaneously copresent.

NOTE: Although Jakobson (1931/1962) used the terms flat, non-flat, grave, and acute (1962:224), Qu (2021:164-165) showed that in the translation from Czech to English, Jakobson took the opportunity to incorporate some anachronistic terms.

References

Bghazhba, X. S. 1964. Bzybskij dialekt abxazskogo jazyka. Tblisi: Nauka.

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

Doak, Ivy Grace. 1997. Coeur D’Alene grammatical relations.Austin: University of Texas dissertation.

Fant, Gunnar. 1983. Feature analysis of Swedish vowels–a revisit. Speech Transmission Laboratory Quarterly Progress and Status Report 2-3. 1-19.

Jakobson, Roman. 1931. Z fonologie spisovné slovenštiny. Slovenská miscellanea, ed. by Josef Jirásek, and František Tichý, 155-163. Bratislava: Universum.

Jakobson, Roman. 1962. Phonemic notes on standard Slovak. Selected writings, vol. I: Phonological studies, 221-230. ‘S-Gravenhage: Mouton.

Jakobson, Roman, Gunnar Fant & Morris Halle. 1952. Preliminaries to speech analysis: the distinctive features and their correlates. (MIT Acoustic Laboratory Technical Report 13). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

McCawley, James D. 1967. Le rôle d’un système de traits phonologiques dans une théorie du langage. Languages 8, 112-123. English version: The role of a phonological feature system in a theory of language in Phonological theory: Evolution and current practice, ed. by Valerie Becker Makkai, 522-528. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1972.

Qu, Changliang. 2021. Roman Jakobson’s forgotten Czech articles on phonology: A case of avoiding anachronism in linguistic historiography. RUS: Revista de Literatura e Cultura Russa 12(19).154-170. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-4765.rus.2021.186465

Author

Paul D. Fallon