Neutral vowels and exceptional harmony in Western Yugur

Abstract

This study examines the highly lexicalized vowel harmony system of Western Yugur (Siberian Turkic, Gansu province, China). Specifically, it explores the representation of ‘exceptional roots’ which trigger harmony of the opposite value than indicated by surface phonetic clues (/kʰun+lAr/ → [kʰunlir]), as well as the representations of neutral (i.e. opaque and transparent) suffixal vowels. This study adopts Bellik’s (2015) Feature Domain Theory (FDT), which provides a unified account of facts regarding both neutral vowels and exceptional harmony in Western Yugur. Attention is further drawn to the phonetic value of the transparent vowel [ɯ], which falls outside typological expectations. A tentative explanation is offered within the framework of FDT.