Vowel Features for [a]?

[Psykie]

Greetings,

I am currently doing Intro to Linguistics at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, and I have a problem with one of my questions.

The question asks us to find complementary distribution between two consonants, and then to write a rule that describes the sounds as allophones. Anyway, I have narrowed the rule down to:

Code: Select all

/l/  >  [r] / V[*]_
     >  [l] / elsewhere

But due to to an error on the printouts I have, I can't find the specific features of [a] to do an analysis. I have all the other vowels found in the situation, and I believe it will most likely be [+front] that is the cause for the allophone, but I am not certain.

So if someone could please tell me the features of [a] that fit into the following categories: (see example)

Code: Select all

          [o]   [a]
tense      +     ?
back       +     ?
front      -     ?
high       -     ?
low        -     ?
round      +     ?

Thanks!

[treskro]

You can probably figure this out just by looking at the IPA vowel chart.

[Matt]

Code: Select all

          [o]   [a]
tense      +     +
back       +     -
front      -     +
high       -     -
low        -     +
round      +     -

[Rory]

Feature specifications are language-specific. (In fact, I would go even further and say that features themselves are language specific, but that's a different question.)

In the case of your analysis, you can probably say that /a/ is [+low] and [-high], but I'd want some phonological motivation for saying that it is explicitly one or the other for any of the other features you've listed.

Anyway, the question about your problem was sorta vague, but is the situation that /l/ becomes [r] in front of the front vowels and /a/? Then you can say it happens before a [-back] vowel, or before a [+front] vowel, as long as you can motivate those particular features for /a/ (and, incidentally, the other vowels).