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

Alex Francois alex.francois.cnrs at gmail.com
Sat Jul 12 17:24:20 UTC 2025 

Dear Christian, dear all,

Among the 17 (Oceanic, Austronesian) languages of northern Vanuatu, one has
kept the 5-vowel system of Proto Oceanic {i e a o u}, but the other 16 have
increased their inventories, to at least 7 vowel phonemes, and up to 13 or
14 for some languages (François 2005a).

Several languages, like Mwotlap, have 7 vowels, which I analyse like this:
*i        u*
* ɪ     ʊ*
*  ɛ  ɔ*
*   a*

Usually, N Vanuatu languages do not contrast /ɪ/ with /e/, so admittedly
someone could propose that the 7-vowel system above could "simply" be a
case of cardinal vowels like this:
*i        u*
* e     o*
*  ɛ  ɔ*
*   a*

And indeed, this analysis is proposed by Malau (2016) for Vurës, one of the
languages of the area.

Personally I don't mind, but I'm not convinced that the second analysis
would be more simple or economical than the first one. Also, one reason why
I analyse the second-degree vowels as /ɪ ʊ/ is a phenomenon (rare in the
Pacific) of ATR vowel harmony in Mwotlap, whereby  a noun  [*i*pl*u*]
'companion', when taking certain suffixes, involve the lowering of both
vowels [*ɪ*pl*ʊ*n] 'his companion', with what looks like some form of ATR
vowel harmony (François 2005b:117).
This is one of the reasons why I have been analysing the second degree
vowels as /ɪ ʊ/ in that region.

Yet I can sympathise with the hesitation reported by Larry about Bantu
languages, on the difficulty to choose between the /ɪ ʊ/ and the /e o/
analyses.

While some systems of northern Vanuatu are richer in vowel phonemes, they
usually show the same contrast between /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ (rather than between /ɪ/
and /e/). See for example Lemerig and Mwerlap (counting diphthongs among
vowel phonemes):
[image: image.png]
(vowel charts from François 2011: 195)
_______
Now, one special case I encountered was the language of *Hiw *(Torres
islands).
While its neighbours show systems such as those above, Hiw shows a
contrast, unusual in the region, between /ɪ/ and /e/:
[image: image.png]

>From the phonetic point of view, the system is quite asymmetrical, with the
presence of mid-open [ɔ] among back vowels, but no mid-open [ɛ] in the
front.
One might insist that, from some abstract perspective, /i ɪ e a/ is really
similar to (or reanalysable as) /i e ɛ a/ (?); but I don't see what we
would gain from forcing a symmetric structure onto a vowel system that is
simply not symmetrical.  When I studied Hiw, I was impressed that [ɛ] never
came up as a phone, as /e/ was always pronounced quite high.  Thus the verb
'go', which is [vɛn] in neighbouring Lo-Toga, is always realised [ven] in
Hiw, with a higher vowel.

My acoustic impressions were confirmed as I calculated the average F1 and
F2 for the 9 vowels of Hiw:

[image: image.png]

As you may imagine from the formant chart, distinguishing between the two
phonemes /ɪ/ and /e/ was one of the challenges I faced when learning the
language.
Good speakers insist that they do form minimal pairs, e.g. /ven/ 'go' vs.
/vɪn/ 'go up, climb'.
Some younger speakers also found it difficult to hear the difference
between /ɪ/ and /e/, or to reproduce it clearly; but my main teacher Jacob
was able to distinguish them with clarity.  (One of the lessons he gave me
can be heard here <https://doi.org/10.24397/pangloss-0002834>.)

In sum, while there may be hesitation, for other North Vanuatu languages,
between analysing the second-degree vowels as /ɪ ʊ/ or /e o/, at least for
Hiw there is no such ambiguity that /ɪ/ exists as a phoneme – since it
contrasts both with /i/ and with /e/.

best
Alex
__________

PS: References:

   - François, Alexandre. 2005a
   <http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#2005b>. Unraveling
   the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages. *Oceanic
   Linguistics* 44 (2): 443-504.
   - —— 2005b. A typological overview of Mwotlap.* Linguistic Typology *9-1:
   115-146. [→pp.117-118
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2005_LingTyp_Mwotlap.pdf#page=3>
   ]
   - —— 2011. Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu
   linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence. *Journal of Historical
   Linguistics* 1 (2). 175-246.  [→pp.194-195
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf#page=20>
   ]


------------------------------

Alex François
LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS
<https://www.cnrs.fr/en> — <https://www.cnrs.fr/en> ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–PSL <https://www.psl.eu/en> — Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
<http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
<http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/alex-francois>
Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
_________________________________________


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 at 17:28
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] contrast between [ɪ] and [e]
To: <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>


Thanks to everybody for your helpful hints. I will certainly countercheck
my phonetic ear.
As for my question #2, I will heed Larry's hint "(15c) is the expected 7V
system worldwide". Indeed, [e] and [o] figure among the cardinal vowels,
while [ɪ] and [ʊ] do not.
@ Ian and Martin: I assume that the general principles you mention imply an
answer to one of my questions. Would you mind giving me a clue in this
respect?
-- 

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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