[Lingtyp] contrast between [ɪ] and [e]

[Larry M Hyman]

Dear Christian,

I can't help responding with some Bantu, where this is not "a trivial
little problem". Seven vowels (7V) are reconstructed in Proto-Bantu,
although many Bantu languages have only canonical /i, e, u, o, a/. (Certain
peripheral Bantu languages have more ATR variants and other complications.)
The problem concerns both reconstructed and current 7V systems, for which
three different interpretations have appeared over the years:

[image: image.png]
(Hyman 1999:247)

(15a) involves a "noise" contrast in what used to be called "superhigh"
vowels, but the more relevant problem is choosing between (15b) (now
generally accepted) and (15c). The same problem arises in the 7V daughter
languages where even after working for years on a language, a specialist
may not be confident whether the "second degree" vowels are phonetically [ɪ
ʊ] or [e, o] (or something in between?). Since (15c) is the expected 7V
system worldwide, the rarer systems like (15b) are often transcribed as
(15c). (This is also what Welmers also did for Liberian Kpelle, a Mande
language, on the other side of the continent.) Phonologically there is
height harmony between [ɪ ʊ] and [ɛ ɔ] in some languages and the more
common ATR harmony between [e, o] and [ɛ ɔ] in others. While second degree
/ɪ/ or /e/ harmonizes to [ɛ] after [ɛ] and [ɔ], there often is an asymmetry
in either system that second degree /ʊ/ or /o/ does not harmonize to [ɔ]
after /ɛ/, only after /ɔ/. This would suggest a relationship between degree
2 and degree 3 vowels. On the other hand, there is a relationship between
degree 1 and degree 2 vowels: original 7V systems become 5V systems by
merging degree 2 *ɪ, *ʊ with degree 1 *i, *u (although the latter typically
leave an (af)fricated or palatalized trace on a preceding consonant).

In short, the phonetic closeness of [ɪ] and [e] (and [ʊ] and [o]) has been
a recurrent issue in Bantu vowel phonology. I'm not sure if it has been
resolved, but we seem to be talking less about it vs. much discussion a
couple of decades ago.

Best, Larry

Hyman, Larry M. 1999. The historical interpretation of vowel harmony in
Bantu. In Jean-Marie Hombert & Larry M. Hyman (eds), *Bantu historical
linguistics: Theoretical and empirical perspective*s, 235-295. Stanford:
C.S.L.I.

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 3:52 AM Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Here is a trivial little problem for the phoneticians and phonologists:
>
> IPA (
> https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/#ipachartstart)
> says that [ɪ] and [e] contrast in two features, height and
> frontness/backness.
>
> Being a speaker of a language whose phonetic transcription has involved
> both of the above symbols for generations of phoneticians, and the symbols
> represent different phonemes, I have always taken this for granted.
> However, this pair of phones does not constitute clean minimal pairs in
> German because [e] is long, [ɪ] is short.
>
> Describing now the Cabecar phonetics and phonology, there is a front
> mid-high (IPA says 'near-close' or 'close-mid') vowel phoneme which
> contrasts with both /i/ and /ɛ/, and there is no length. Chibchanist
> tradition transcribes it by [ɪ]. (There is an analogous configuration for
> /u/, /ʊ/ and /ɔ/.) I have two innocent questions here:
>
>    1. Do [ɪ] and [e] actually sound differently? If I click them on the
>    IPA webpage indicated, they sound identical to my ears. Same if I stretch
>    the [ɪ] in my own pronunciation of *bitte*.
>    2. Even supposing that these are two different phones, should the
>    (Cabecar) phoneme covering them not be taken to be /e/, rather than /ɪ/
>    (and likewise for /o/ rather than /ʊ/)?
>
> My (less innocent) suspicion is (but please correct me) that transcribing
> German words like *bitte* with [ɪ] instead of the [e] of *bete* is due to
> a phonological or even orthographic bias.
>
> Curiously, if you ask Google "Is there a phonological contrast between [ɪ]
> and [e]?", its KI cheats you, adducing English examples spelled with <e>
> which represents an [ɛ].
> --
>
> 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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>


-- 
Larry M. Hyman, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
& Director, France-Berkeley Fund, University of California, Berkeley
https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman
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