An instrumental phonetic study of innovative pronunciations in European Portuguese shows that substantial revision is underway in the traditional phonological rules. There are several strategies apparent in which all speakers now allow lax vowels in pre-nasal position, but different speakers accomplish this in different ways. Among these are strategies where one merely drops the old pre-nasal tensing rule versus others where a new late laxing rule overwrites the effects of vowel harmony and other tensing rules in EP phonology.