[Lingtyp] allophony of [h] and [ɸ]

[Christian Lehmann]

The above allophony is well known from Japanese. My current problem is 
to describe it for Cabecar (Chibchan, Costa Rica). The conditioning 
context is almost the same in these languages: What appears as [ɸ] 
before [ɯ] (in Japanese) or [u] (in Cabecar) is [h] otherwise.

Intuition would suggest that this is an assimilation of what is 
basically an /h/ to the features of the following vowel. However, my 
phonetics and phonology are insufficient to answer the two obvious 
questions:

 1. What is the phonetic motivation for this distribution?
 2. Is there a phonological feature shared by [ɸ], on one hand, and both
    [u] and [ɯ], on the other, which could figure in a formulation of
    the assimilation?

Let it be said that my phonology was shaped a couple of years ago by 
Chomsky & Halle 1968; so I am prepared to be told that this is of no 
concern anymore and the fruitful approach is entirely different. 
Nevertheless, the two questions may make sense even outside this 
particular framework.

I would be very grateful for help from you phonologists (or anybody else).
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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