o/u

[Geoff Davis]

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 09:13:46 -0400, Frances Karttunen
<karttu at nantucket.net> wrote:

> Nahuatl has distinct front unrounded vowels /i/ and /e/ (both long and
> short).  All short front vowels (including /a/), however, have a
> tendency to drift upwards toward /i/ and thence to nothing at all.
> Lockhart discusses this at some length under the rubric of "weakening."

Perhaps yourself or someone else on the list could clarify this piece
for me.  First allow me to post a link:

http://www.sil.org/americas/mexico/nahuatl/21i-VowelsNah.htm

This page states (and illustrates using pictures) that /i/ and /e/ are front
vowels and /a/ and /o/ are back vowels in classical Nahuatl, and shows
that height is a distinguishing feature.  This hadn't raised a red flag for
me, until now, since I've read this in other sources as well.

I've known that Spanish vowels are not correct, but I had thought this
system, illustrated at the above web URL, was essentially correct.

So, for me, it comes down to this: What are the "official" phonological
descriptions of /a/, /e/, /i/, and /o/ for classical Nahuatl?

-Geoff