Distinctions Between Reduced and Unreduced Vowels
As mentioned in the previous section, some linguists make a phonemic distinction between syllables that contain reduced vowels (as listed above – syllabic consonants are also included in this category), and those that, while being phonetically unstressed, nevertheless contain a full (unreduced) vowel. In some analyses syllables of the latter type are ascribed tertiary stress (those of the former type being regarded as completely unstressed), while in others the reduced/unreduced distinction is regarded as one of vowel quality not involving any difference in stress. This last approach is taken by linguists such as Ladefoged and Bolinger, who thus consider that there are two "tiers" of vowels in English, full and reduced.
A distinction of this type becomes necessary when reduced vowels are analyzed as instances of the same phonemes as full vowels, but a potential meaningful contrast continues to exist between them. For example, the happY vowel may be analyzed as an instance of /iː/ (or as an archiphoneme reflecting the neutralization of /iː/ and /ɪ/), although for many speakers a contrast remains between words such as humanity, chicory (which end with the reduced vowel of happY) and manatee, chickaree (which end with an unreduced /iː/). Another example, for some speakers, is provided by the words farrow and Pharoah; the first may end with a reduced vowel, assigned to the phoneme /oʊ/ (the vowel of ), while the second ends with the unreduced form of that vowel.
Some linguists have observed phonetic consequences of vowel reduction that go beyond the pronunciation of the vowel itself. Bolinger (1989) observes that a preceding voiceless stop is likely to retain its aspiration before an unstressed full vowel, but not before a reduced vowel; and that flapping of /t/ and /d/ in American English is possible before a reduced vowel but not before a full vowel. Hence the /t/ in manatee would be an aspirated, while that in humanity would be unaspirated or a flap . Wells (1990) explains such phenomena by claiming that, in the absence of morpheme boundaries or phonotactical constraints, a consonant between a full and a reduced vowel generally belongs to the syllable with the full vowel, whereas a consonant between two reduced vowels belongs to the preceding syllable. According to this analysis, manatee is /ˈmæn.ə.tiː/ and humanity is /hjʊ.ˈmæn.ɪt.i/; it is then asserted that voiceless stops are only aspirated at the beginning of syllables, and /t/ can only be flapped at the end of a syllable (as in might I /maɪt.aɪ/ → versus my tie /maɪ.taɪ/ → ).
Read more about this topic: Stress And Vowel Reduction In English
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