Tongue Root Position in Akan Vowel Harmony

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Abstract
The vowels of Akan fall into 2 sets on the basis of vowel harmony: I, e, a, o, U and i, e, 3 , o, u. The relation of the 1st set to the 2nd is one of unmarked to marked, so that one would expect to find a constant articulatory feature extending throughout harmony spans with i. e, 3, o, u. Tongue raising is unacceptable because there is no constant tongue height, and tenseness is unacceptable as in the unmarked vowels lax-ness is conspicously absent. Advancing of the root of the tongue is acceptable, and appears to account for all the phonetic phenomena which were found to be associated with this particular type of vowel harmony.

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