--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> [e] is front, to be sure, but in small vowel inventories frontness
is usually a redundant feature. Note that the letter E is the
predominant spelling for phonetic schwas (reduction vowels) in many
Latin-based writing systems.
>
Of course Lithuanian's vowel inventory is far from being small and
therefore may be the following note is not of relevance here, but, as
is commonly accepted, [+ low tone](:[-low tone]) and [+hight tone]
opposition is the most significant for all the vocal phonemes (it
formes the first fork of the vowels tree).
Again, I can hardly understand how a high percent of common
distictive features can trigger the development [stressed e] >
[stressed(!) &] > [o].
Sergei