A phonetic and phonological analysis of the Rere vowel height system

Previous research on Rere has documented an eight-vowel system /i e ɛ ɐ a u o ɔ/
with strict vowel harmony rules (Quint 2009). The present study provides an
acoustic analysis of the Rere vowel system to capture the phonetic characteris-
tics of vowel quality in phonological distributions and phonetic processes. Using
elicited data with instrumental suffixation and valence-changing structures
(including causatives and passives), we largely confirm the previous account of vowel
height agreement in Rere. However, considerable variation in vowel height and
vowel quality was also observed. To account for the exceptions, we propose that
the mid front vowel /e/ is shifting to a higher vowel [ɪ], which better explains
words with disharmonic combinations, mismatches between root and suffix
vowels in the instrumental construction, and the lack of alternation in derived verbs in
causatives.