Phonetic Patterns in Arapaho Vowels

Phonetic patterns in Arapaho vowels

Christian T. DiCanio [email protected] Douglas H. Whalen [email protected]

Haskins Laboratories http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/∼dicanio

10/18/13 45th Algonquian conference - University of Ottawa

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 1 Introduction Why study vowels in Arapaho?

While some languages may have short and long vowels, Arapaho also has vowels that are extra long. Typologically, this is very rare (Remijsen and Gilley, 2008). How are these vowels produced by speakers? What is the general relationship between vowel quality and vowel quantity?

There are diﬀering perspectives on the nature of pitch accent in the language. How many possible pitch accents are there and how are they diﬀerent from each other?

What can the phonetic patterns reveal about the phonological structure of Arapaho?

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 2 Introduction Roadmap

1 Arapaho phonology

2 Vowel quality and quantity

3 Pitch accent

4 Discussion and future directions

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 3 Arapaho phonology Arapaho vowels (Cowell and Moss Sr., 2008)

Table: Arapaho Vowel Inventory Front Back High i u Low E (e) O (o)

Diphthongs eI (ei) oU (ou) Ië (io) aI (oe)

Phonetically, there is a three-way contrast in vowel length in Arapaho. Though, the phonological status of extra long vowels remains unclear. Consonants do not contrast in length.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 4 Arapaho phonology

Extra long vowels are described alternately as a triadic sequence (Salzman, 1956) or as belonging to separate syllables (Cowell and Moss Sr., 2008). Though, only impressionistic evidence for syllable aﬃliation is given.

Table: Vowel length contrast Short Long Extra long i ii iii E EE EEE u uu uuu O OO OOO eI eeI oU ooU aI (aaI) Ië ?

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 5 Arapaho phonology Examples

Length Word Gloss Word Gloss short his ‘liver’ hÓTOP ‘star’ long n´ı´ıs ‘two’ hOhÓÓt ‘tree’ extra long bOn´ıi´ıt ‘work with’ bEtÓOOt ‘dance (noun)’ porcupine quills’ short hET ‘dog’ TOOnoÚhut ‘He’s lazy.’ long tSÉET ‘accidentally’ tOPúút ‘hammer’ extra long hÉEÉ ‘yes’ ToUxOsuuu ‘head-dress’

In addition to length, these vowels seem to be diﬀerent in quality too.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 6 Vowel quality and quantity Vowel quality and quantity

“As against their short counterparts, the long high vowels are closer and tenser.” (Salzman, 1956, 53).

“When the vowels occur long, they show changes in quality as well as quantity. In particular, /ii/ and /uu/ have values approaching [i] and [u].” (Cowell and Moss Sr., 2008, 13).

Neither Salzman nor Cowell & Moss mention any quality diﬀerence among low vowels. Impressionistically, low vowels seem to diﬀer in quality too, e.g. [E] vs. [æ:], [2] vs. [O:].

In languages with contrastive vowel length, shorter vowels are typically more lax (or central) and longer vowels are more tense (or peripheral) (Johnson and Martin, 2001).

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 7 Vowel quality and quantity

Typically, the expectation is that when vowels are shorter, speakers lack the duration to reach a vowel target. This is called vowel undershoot (Lindblom, 1963). Over time, these patterns become part of the phonology of a language, so vowels of diﬀerent quantity also diﬀer in quality.

However, this pattern should aﬀect all the vowels in a language, not just the high vowels. Can we test this in Arapaho?

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 8 Vowel quality and quantity Phonetic study on vowel quality and quantity

Recordings made by the ﬁrst author from 7-8 hours of elicitation sessions with two male speakers (WC and IJC) in October 2012, which were supplemented with an existing recording of a female speaker, MKU (35 minutes) recorded by Lisa Conathan (Conathan, 2004-2007).

While the words diﬀered across speakers, most words had 2-3 repetitions. For WC, 163 words were analyzed. For IJC, 90 words were analyzed. For MKU, 62 words/sentences were analyzed.

Number of vowels analyzed: 1290 for WC, 688 for IJC, and 579 for MKU.

Labeled vowels and analyzed formant values on vowels of diﬀerent lengths using a script written for Praat (Boersma and Weenink, 2011).

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 9 Vowel quality and quantity Results: vowel duration

Long vowels are twice as long as short vowels and extra long vowels are almost twice as long as long vowels.

Vowel duration by speaker

Extra long Long

MKU Short IJC WC

0 100 200 300 400 500

Duration (ms.)

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 10 Vowel quality and quantity Results: Length and quality

Vowel space in Arapaho 300 i i 400 u u 500 F1 e 600 o e o 700 AllSpkrs

2400 2200 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 11 Vowel quality and quantity Results: Length and quality

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 12 Vowel quality and quantity Results: Speaker diﬀerences

Vowel space: speaker IJC Vowel space: speaker WC Vowel space: speaker MKU 200 200 300

300 300 i 400 i u i u i u

400 400 500 i u

F1 e F1 F1 u 500 500 600 e o o u e

600 e 600 700 o e o o e

700 700 800 o Iggy_John Wayne MKU

2400 2000 1600 1200 2400 2000 1600 1200 2500 2000 1500 1000

F2 F2 F2

For all speakers, long high vowels are higher than short high vowels and long /E/ is lower than short /E/. Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 13 Vowel quality and quantity Extra long vowels

Vowel quality for the extra long vowels was similar to that of the long vowels for /i/, but more retracted (back) for /O/. Though, too few tokens of other vowels to allow us to determine a general tendency.

Quality differences in long and extra long vowels

300 i i 400 F1 500

600 o

700 AllSpkrs o

2400 2000 1600 1200

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 14 Vowel quality and quantity Summary & Interim discussion

Diﬀerences across speakers in how back vowels are realized, but similarity among front vowels.

Clear diﬀerence in vowel quality which corresponds with a change in quantity. The low vowel /E/ is higher when short, but lower when long ([æ]), a previously unreported phenomenon.

Findings ﬁt with the more general notion that short vowels are centralized, or undershot, while long vowels are more peripheral in the vowel space, as opposed to idea that only the high vowels lower.

Speaker variability in whether /O/ changes quality when short or long. However, the extra long vowel is more retracted than the long vowel.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 15 Pitch accent Pitch accent

Previous work describes pitch accents associated with individual vowels in Arapaho, e.g. úu, uú, úú, (Cowell and Moss Sr., 2008).

Accent Short vowels Accent Long vowels Accent Extra long vowels H Ó HH ÓÓ HHH * L O HL ÓO HHL * LH OÓ HLH ÓOÓ LL OO HLL ÓOO LHH * LHL * LLH OOÓ LLL *

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 16 Pitch accent Examples

Word Gloss Word Gloss wOnÓP ‘ankle’ hÉbEs ‘beaver’ nEÉtSEE ‘chief’ hÓÓtSOO ‘devil’ nEhéi ‘aunt’ tOPúút ‘hammer’ tSEPEEP ‘potato’ bÉtEE ‘heart’ hooÚ ‘porcupine’ hóoU ‘crow’ wóUÚ ‘copulate!’

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 17 Pitch accent Questions

Pitch accent has been a particularly diﬃcult aspect of Arapaho grammar to describe. Many of the morphological alternations which inﬂuence it have no clear explanation (Cowell and Moss Sr., 2008).

Cowell and Moss note that both elicitation session types and significant speaker variation can distort pitch accents. To what extent are the pitch accents stable across speakers uttering different words in different elicitation sessions?

How are pitch accents produced? How does vowel length inﬂuence pitch accent?

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 18 Pitch accent Phonetic study on pitch accent

Same recordings and words as before.

Labeled vowels and analyzed F0 (pitch) values on vowels of diﬀerent lengths using a script written for Praat (Boersma and Weenink, 2011).

Examined similar accentual patterns across vowel lengths, e.g. HLL vs. HL, LLH vs. LH.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 19 Pitch accent Results: Pitch accents on short vowels

Pitch accents on short vowels Pitch accents on short vowels Pitch accents on short vowels Speaker WC Speaker IJC Speaker MKU

140 H L 130 H L 230 H L 130 120 220 120 110 210 110 100 200 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 90 100 190 90 80 180

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Time (normalized) Time (normalized) Time (normalized)

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 20 Pitch accent Results: HH and LL pitch accents

HH and LL accents on long vowels Speaker WC Speaker IJC Speaker MCU

LL HH LL HH LL HH 150 130 220 140 120 210 130 110 200 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 120 100 190 90 110 180 80 100 170

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Time (normalized) Time (normalized) Time (normalized)

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 21 Pitch accent Results: HL and LH pitch accents

HL and LH accents on long vowels Speaker WC Speaker IJC Speaker MCU

LH HL LH HL LH HL 170 150 210 160 140 200 150 130 190 140 120 180 130 110 170 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 120 100 160 90 110 150 80 100 140

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Time (normalized) Time (normalized) Time (normalized)

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 22 Pitch accent Observations

Clear diﬀerence between H (accented) and L (unaccented) in short vowels, mainly in terms of pitch height. A diﬀerent trajectory in pitch was observed for MKU. On long vowels, speakers produce both HH and HL patterns similarly.

There is substantial between-speaker variation in the pitch shape of L, LL, and LH patterns.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 23 Pitch accent Results: Pitch accents on extra long vowels

HLL on extra long vowels LLH on extra long vowels HLH on extra long vowels 140 140 140 130 130 130 120 120 120 110 110 110 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 100 100 100 90 90 90 80 80 80

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Time (normalized) Time (normalized) Time (normalized)

How do the HLL and LLH patterns on extra long vowels compare with similar falling and rising patterns on long vowels?

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 24 Pitch accent Comparison of falling and rising patterns

HL pattern on long and extra long vowels LH pattern on long and extra long vowels

150 HL HLL 150 LH LLH 140 140 130 130 120 120 110 110 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 100 100 90 90 80 80

2 4 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 10

Time (pseudo-normalized) Time (pseudo-normalized)

The pitch accent on the long vowel looks like a compressed version of the one on the extra long vowel, but at a diﬀerent height.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 25 Pitch accent Results: comparison

One way to compare the pitch accent patterns on extra long vowels with those on long vowels is to stretch out the pitch accents on long vowels to see how they match the ones on extra long vowels.

HL pattern on long and extra long vowels HL and LH accents on long vowels

150 HL HLL 150 LH LLH 140 140 130 130 120 120 110 110 Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) 100 100 90 90 80 80

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Time (normalized) Time (normalized)

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 26 Oto-Manguean

Oto-Manguean Oto-Manguean Oto-Manguean

Western Eastern Western Eastern Western Western Eastern Eastern

Oto-Pamean-Chinantecan Tlapanecan-Chorotegan Oto-Pamean-Chinantecan Tlapanecan-Chorotegan Amuzgo-Mixtecan Mazatecan-Zapotecan Oto-Pamean-Chinantecan Oto-Pamean-ChinantecanTlapanecan-Chorotegan Tlapanecan-Chorotegan Amuzgo-Mixtecan Mazatecan-Zapotecan Amuzgo-Mixtecan Amuzgo-Mixtecan Mazatecan-Zapotecan Mazatecan-ZapotecanSubtiaba-Tlapanec Chorotegan Amuzgo Mixtecan Oto-Pamean Subtiaba-TlapanecChinantec Chorotegan Subtiaba-Tlapanec ChoroteganSubtiaba-Tlapanec Chorotegan AmuzgoChiapanec Mixtecan Chorotega Mazatecan Zapotecan Amuzgo MixtecanOto-PameanAmuzgo Mixtecan Chinantec Oto-Pamean Oto-PameanChinantec Chinantec Chiapanec Chorotega Trique Mixtecan-CuicatecanMazatecan Zapotecan Chiapanec Chorotega Chiapanec Chorotega Mazatecan MazatecanZapotecan Zapotecan Trique Mixtecan-Cuicatecan Zapotec Chatino Trique Mixtecan-CuicatecanTrique Mixtecan-Cuicatecan Mazatec Chochoan Northern Southern Cuicatec Mixtec Zapotec Chatino Zapotec Chatino Zapotec Chatino Cuicatec Mixtec Mazatec Chochoan NorthernCuicatec Mixtec MazatecSouthernCuicatec Chochoan Mixtec Mazatec Chochoan Northern NorthernSouthern Southern Chichimec Pame Ixcatec Popolocan-Chocho Chichimec Pame Matlazinca-Tlahuica Otomí-Mazahua Ixcatec Popolocan-Chocho Ixcatec Popolocan-Chocho Ixcatec Popolocan-Chocho Chichimec Pame Chichimec Pame Matlazinca-Tlahuica Otomí-Mazahua Matlazinca-Tlahuica Otomí-MazahuaMatlazinca-Tlahuica Otomí-Mazahua

[-continuant] [-continuant] [-continuant] [-continuant] [-voice] [-voice] [-voice] [-voice] Pitch accent Summary/Discussion

C/V-Ratio Long-lag.VOT C/V-Ratio Similarities in HL andLong-lag.VOT HLL; and LH and LLH patterns in terms of C/V-Ratio C/V-RatioLong-lag.VOT Long-lag.VOT pitch trajectory, but diﬀerent in terms of height. The accent on the long vowels is higher than on the extra long vowels. Closure.Duration Vowel.Duration Closure.Duration Vowel.DurationClosure.Duration Vowel.Duration Closure.Duration Vowel.DurationSimiliarity in trajectory favors a phonologicalVOT=75ms. representation Aspiration where the Delayed.F1 VOT=75ms. Aspiration Delayed.F1VOT=75ms. Aspiration Delayed.F1 VOT=75ms. Aspiration Delayed.F1 middle mora is tonally unspeciﬁed, an account which jibes well with the observed patterns: HLH, HLL, LLH.

σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σσ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

P P P P P P P P µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µµ µ µ µ µ µµ µ µ µ µ µµ µ µ µµ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µµ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µµ µµ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ µ

T T T T T T T T T T T T TT CVV T T CVT V T CVV VT T CVTV V T CVV T T CVCVV V CVV V CVV CVVCVVV V CVV V CVV CVV CVV V CVV V

CVV CVV CV V CV V CV CV CVCVCVV H L CVV CVH L V H CVL V HCV LCV L H CV CV L HH L L H H L L HH L H L L H L H L H L H

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 27

Popolocana-(20) Popolocana-(20) Popolocana-(20) Popolocana-(20)

Chocho-Popoloca-(8) Chocho-Popoloca-(8) Ixcateco Ixcateco Mazateco-(11) Mazateco-(11) Chocho-Popoloca-(8) Ixcateco Mazateco-(11) Chocho-Popoloca-(8) Ixcateco Mazateco-(11)

Chocholteco Chocholteco Popoloca-(7) Popoloca-(7) Chocholteco Popoloca-(7) Bajo-de-Rio-Santo-DomingoChocholtecoBajo-de-Rio-Santo-DomingoBajo-de-Norte Bajo-de-NortePopoloca-(7)ChiquihuitlánChiquihuitlán Alto Alto Bajo-de-Rio-Santo-Domingo Bajo-de-Norte Chiquihuitlán Alto Jalapa Santo.Domingo Jalapa Santo.DomingoSoyaltepec Ixcatlán Soyaltepec Ixcatlán Bajo-de-Rio-Santo-Domingo Bajo-de-Norte Chiquihuitlán Alto Jalapa Santo.Domingo Soyaltepec Ixcatlán Poniente PonienteSur SurNorte Norte Jalapa Santo.Domingo Soyaltepec Ixcatlán Poniente Sur Norte San-Miguel MazatlánSan-Miguel Grupo.A Mazatlán Grupo.A Mezontla Atzingo TemalacayucaMezontla Atzingo Tlalcoyalco Poniente Sur Norte Temalacayuca Tlalcoyalco Mezontla Atzingo San-Miguel Mazatlán Grupo.A Coyotepec Otlaltepec AhuatempanCoyotepec Otlaltepec Ahuatempan Temalacayuca Tlalcoyalco Coyotepec Otlaltepec Ahuatempan San-Miguel Mazatlán Grupo.A Mezontla Atzingo Temalacayuca Tlalcoyalco Huautla Jiotes TecoatlHuautla San-Lorenzo Jiotes Tecoatl San-Lorenzo Coyotepec Otlaltepec Ahuatempan Huautla Jiotes Tecoatl San-Lorenzo Huautla Jiotes Tecoatl San-Lorenzo Pitch accent General discussion

Vowel quality changes with quantity. Long vowels are more peripheral and short vowels are more centralized. Extra long /O/ is even more peripheral.

Revised system: short /I, E, O, U/ but long /i:, æ:, O:, u:/.

Clear differences between different patterns of pitch accent on vowels of varying lengths. The greater variation in the realization of L and LL patterns (as opposed to H, HH) suggests that there is no specific target of a “L.” Rather, these vowels are tonally unspecified.

Similar trajectory for HL-HLL and LH-LLH patterns suggests pitch is simply interpolated across the syllable between a H and L target; the medial mora is unspeciﬁed.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 28 Pitch accent Conclusions and future directions

Despite the ostensible diﬀerences of the elicitation sessions and speakers, stable phonetic patterns were found for vowel length, vowel quality, and, to a certain extent, for pitch accent.

The nature of using elicited corpora is that there will be gaps in patterns. There were few examples of LH pitch accent and of extra long vowels in the data considered. Given the variation among speakers, more data may be revealing.

Plan to include additional vowel data from a Conathan’s (2004-2007) corpus, with a particular focus on running speech. The goal will be a more complete phonetic description of the Arapaho sound system.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 29 Pitch accent Acknowledgements

Thank you!

This work was supported by NSF Grant No. 0966411 to Haskins Laboratories: “From endangered language documentation to phonetic documentation.”

We would also like to thank the Arapaho community and Lisa Conathan.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 30 Appendices Appendix 1: Vowel quality and duration

600

500

400

Length

300 short long extra long

Duration (ms) Duration 200

100

ɛ i ɔ u Vowel quality

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 31 Appendices Appendix 2: stress or pitch accent?

In languages with stress, it is impossible to have polysyllabic word lacking stress (Hyman, 2006). However, there are words lacking accent in Arapaho. Moreover, adjacent sequences of accented syllables are possible, which never occurs in a stress language. Both observations argue that Arapaho possesses a pitch accent (or simple tonal) system.

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 32 Appendices Appendix 3: Pitch accent and duration

600

500

400

Length

300 short long extra long Duration (ms) Duration 200

100

H L HH HL LH LL HLH LLH HLL Pitch accent pattern

Christian DiCanio (((Haskins))) Arapaho vowels 10/18/13 33 Appendices Boersma, P. and Weenink, D. (2011). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [computer program]. www.praat.org. Conathan, L. (2004–2007). Northern Arapaho linguistic corpus. Endangered Language Archive, School of Oriental and Asiatic Studies, University of London. Cowell, A. and Moss Sr., A. (2008). The Arapaho Language. University Press of Colorado. Hyman, L. M. (2006). Word-prosodic typology. Phonology, 23:225–257. Johnson, K. and Martin, J. (2001). Acoustic vowel reduction in Creek: Effects of distinctive length and position in the word. Phonetica, 58:81–102. Lindblom, B. (1963). Spectrographic study of vowel reduction. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 35:1773–1781. Remijsen, B. and Gilley, L. (2008). Why are three-level vowel length systems rare? Insights from Dinka (Luanyjang dialect). Journal of Phonetics, 36:318–344. Salzman, Z. (1956). Arapaho I: Phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics, 22(1):49–56. Zhang, J. (2004). The role of contrast-specific and language-specific phonetics in contour tone distribution. In Hayes, B., Kirchner, R., Kirchner, R. M., and Steriade, D., editors, Phonetically-based Phonology. Cambridge University Press.

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