Vowel height and register assignment in Katuic

Abstract

As has been previously demonstrated in the literature on Katuic (Ferlus 1974a, Diffloth 1982, Sidwell 2005), there are languages in the Katuic language family, an Austroasiatic sub-branch, with register systems whose emergence cannot be comprehensively explained in terms of the classical model of registrogenesis (also called the Khmer model). These include the Pacoh and Ta’oi languages. In this article, I will present evidence that registrogenesis began in these languages in the prototypical way, but register contrast within the Proto-Katuic monophthong height series was subsequently neutralized along a particular pattern; all close vowels merged to lax register and all open vowels merged to tense register. This phenomenon is related to the restructuring of tense close vowels and lax open vowels in many register Austroasiatic languages in that tense close vowels and lax open vowels are eliminated in both cases. The origins of register development in these languages were thus obscured and subsequent vowel shifts reintroduced register contrasts that no longer correspond with proto-language initial consonant voicing. I present evidence from other Katuic languages that indicate the plausibility of these kinds of changes and, finally, I incorporate this vowel height-induced register reorganization into the classical model of registrogenesis, expanding its explanatory power to include languages that have undergone register neutralization within their vowel height series.