F1 and center of gravity interplay in the maintenance of phonological height within a statistical model of a communal grammar: the case of Foodo [ATR] acoustics

Abstract

**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: This paper presents the notion of an idealized or communal grammar as a statistical model of mode, mean or median as emerging from a representative number of a population, rather than in individual speech, per se. Like other languages with a 9-vowel Cross Height Vowel Harmony (CHVH) system, the most reliable correlate of ATR is F1; [+ATR] vowels have lower F1 values than their [-ATR] counterparts, while F2 differences show considerable variation across speakers. F1, however, fails to maintain phonological height differences as the [+ATR] mid vowels of level 3 overlap in acoustic space with the [-ATR] high vowels of level 2. Center of Gravity (CoG) mean differences prove to be a reliable means of maintaining phonological height in some cases, emerging also as the model for the whole sample.