Moksha Prosody
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Moksha prosody Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne ᆁ 268 ᆁ Niina Aasmäe, Pärtel Lippus, Karl Pajusalu, Nele Salveste, Tatjana Zirnask, Tiit-Rein Viitso Moksha prosody Société Finno-Ougrienne Helsinki 2013 Niina Aasmäe, Pärtel Lippus, Karl Pajusalu, Nele Salveste, Tatjana Zirnask, Tiit-Rein Viitso: Moksha prosody Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 268 Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne Layout Vuokko Hangaslahti Map on page 85 Peeter Päll Copyright © 2013 Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura — Société Finno-Ougrienne — Finno-Ugrian Society & the authors ISBN 978-952-5667-47-9 (print) MÉMOIRES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ FINNO-OUGRIENNE ISBN 978-952-5667-48-6 (online) SUOMALAIS-UGRILAISEN SEURAN TOIMITUKSIA ISSN 0355-0230 Editor-in-chief Riho Grünthal (Helsinki) Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy Editorial board Sastamala 2013 Marianne Bakró-Nagy (Szeged), Márta Csepregi (Budapest), Ulla-Maija Forsberg (Helsinki), Kaisa Häkkinen (Turku), Orders — Tilaukset Gerson Klumpp (Tartu), Johanna Laakso (Wien), Tiedekirja Lars-Gunnar Larsson (Uppsala), Kirkkokatu 14 Matti Miestamo (Stockholm), FI-00170 Helsinki Sirkka Saarinen (Turku), www.tiedekirja.fi Elena Skribnik (München), Trond Trosterud (Tromsø), [email protected] Berhard Wälchli (Stockholm), FAX +358 9 635 017 Jussi Ylikoski (Kautokeino) Preface This book provides an analysis of acoustic data pertaining to the prosody of the Moksha language. Central to the analysis are questions of word stress. The survey of previous research presented in this book shows that quantity and tone have not been attested as distinctive prosodic features in Moksha. This study is a part of the Finno-Ugric Prosody Project, initiated by Ilse Lehiste (1928–2010), an outstanding researcher of suprasegmental features of Estonian and many other languages. Ilse Lehiste was the leading author of the volumes on Erzya prosody (Lehiste et al. 2003), Meadow Mari prosody (Lehiste et al. 2005), and Livonian prosody (Lehiste et al. 2008). She also participated in the starting phase of this study until her last days and therefore this book is dedicated to her memory. This book consists of four main chapters. The [ rst, introductory chapter gives background information concerning the Erzya- and Moksha-Mordvin languages and an overview of the segmental structure of Moksha. The second chapter focuses on the [ ndings of previous research of word stress in Moksha. Of special interest for the analysis of literature are the unsolved problems con- cerning word stress; these constitute the basis for the formulation of the research questions treated in this book. The description of the framework of the present experimental investigation and its results is given in the third chapter, where the principal research ques- tions related to the acoustic correlates of Moksha stress are treated. In the last chapter general conclusions concerning the experimental [ ndings are presented. This book contains four appendices that provide a map of the Moksha dia- lects, a list of test words, and sets of additional data obtained in the acoustic analyses. The principal author of the study is Dr. Niina Aasmäe, a researcher of the Mordvin languages, who has compiled all the main parts of this book and per- formed the acoustic and statistical analyses. Niina Aasmäe is a native speaker of Erzya, the closest cognate language of Moksha. Tatjana Zirnask, MA, who is a native speaker of Moksha, has recorded the corpus of read speech and par- ticipated in the measurement procedures. Professor Emeritus Tiit-Rein Viitso, leading expert of Finno-Ugric languages in the project, has compiled the lexi- cal corpus and consulted on various research questions. Professor Karl Pajusalu has supervised the study and contributed to the completion of this volume. Nele Salveste, MA, and Dr. Pärtel Lippus have participated in the acoustic and sta- tistical analyses. All the authors of this volume are working or studying at the University of Tartu. In addition to the authors, several research fellows and students have given their contribution to the preparation of this book. The authors are grate- ful to Tuuli Tuisk, MA, Mihkel Pajusalu, and Sander Pajusalu, who took part 6Preface in the acoustic measurements of the recordings. Words of gratitude also go to Dr. Peeter Päll who has designed the map of the Moksha dialects spoken on the territory of the Republic of Mordovia for the book. A special acknowledgement is for the informants who kindly agreed to participate in the experiment. The authors are deeply indebted to the reviewers, Professor Kari Suomi and Professor Sirkka Saarinen whose merited suggestions helped to improve the quality of this volume. The study was supported by the research grant No. 6983 of the Estonian Science Foundation (led by Dr. Pire Teras) and the projects SF0180076s08 and IUT2-37 (led by Professor Karl Pajusalu) nanced by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science. The authors express their gratitude to the Finno-Ugrian Society in Helsinki for the publication of this book as a volume of Mémoires de la Société Finno- Ougrienne. Special words of gratitude go to our colleagues Anna Kurvinen and Vuokko Hangaslahti for co-operation. Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 11 1.1. Research questions and the structure of the study 11 1.2. Background information on the Mordvin languages 13 1.3. Dialects of Moksha 15 1.4. Segmental structure of Moksha 15 1.4.1. Vowels 16 1.4.2. Consonants 20 1.4.3. Summary 22 Chapter 2 Survey of previous research on word stress in Moksha 24 2.1. Introduction 24 2.2. Early views concerning word stress in Moksha 25 2.2.1. The issue of original Mordvin stress 25 2.2.2. The question of unstressed vowel reduction 28 2.3. Findings on the features of Moksha stress in pre-experimental works 29 2.4. Empirical data available on Moksha stress 32 2.5. Summary 34 Chapter 3 Acoustic manifestations of stress in Moksha 36 3.1. Introduction 36 3.2. Materials and method 36 3.3. Data analysis 38 3.3.1. Duration 38 3.3.1.1. Duration of vowels in stressed vs. unstressed syllables 39 3.3.1.2. Other factors conditioning vowel durations 41 3.3.1.3. Summary 46 3.3.2. Vowel quality 47 3.3.2.1. Vowels in the productions of female informants 48 3.3.2.2. Vowels in the productions of male informants 54 3.3.2.3. Summary 59 3.3.3. Fundamental frequency 62 3.3.3.1. Disyllabic words 63 3.3.3.2. Trisyllabic words 66 3.3.3.3. Polysyllabic words 67 3.3.3.4. Summary 72 8Contents Chapter 4 Conclusions 74 Bibliography 79 Appendix 1 Geographical distribution of Moksha dialects 85 Appendix 2 List of test words 89 Appendix 3 Additional data obtained in the course of acoustic analysis 91 I. Data of vowel durations 91 II. Data of vowel quality 93 III. Data of fundamental frequency 100 Appendix 4 Spectrograms of 1–6 syllable words produced in phrase-final position (speaker JM) 108 Contents 9 List of tables Table 1. Representation of /ä/, /e/ and /i/ in the varieties of Moksha. 16 Table 2. Vowel distributions in the dialects of Moksha. 18 Table 3. The inventory of consonants in literary Moksha. 21 Table 4. Mean vowel durations, in ms (V1 = fi rst vowel, V2 = second vowel, V3 = third vowel), and mean durational ratios between stressed and unstressed syllable nuclei (V1/V2) with standard deviations: di- and trisyllabic words in phrase- and sentence-fi nal position (stress located on odd-numbered syllables). 40 Table 5. Mean vowel durations, in ms (V1, V2, V3), and mean durational ratios between stressed and unstressed syllable nuclei (V2/V3), with standard deviations: trisyllabic words in phrase- and sentence-fi nal position (stress located on the second syllable). 41 Table 6. Mean vowel durations, in ms (V1, V2), and duration ratios (V1/V2) with standard deviations in series of disyllabic words (stress located on the fi rst syllable). 44 List of fi gures Figure 1. Vowel durations, in ms: low /a/ and high /i/ in monosyllabic words (phrase-fi nal position, sentence-fi nal position). 42 Figure 2. Vowel durations, in ms: monosyllabic words ending in a vowel, CV, or a consonant, CVC(C) (phrase-fi nal position, sentence-fi nal position). 43 Figure 3. Durational ratios (V1/V2): series of disyllabic words produced in phrase-fi nal and sentence-fi nal position. 45 Figure 4a. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the stressed fi rst syllable in phrase-fi nal words produced by the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 50 Figure 4b. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the stressed fi rst syllable in sentence-fi nal words produced by the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 50 Figure 5a. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the unstressed second syllable in phrase-fi nal words produced by the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 52 Figure 5b. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the unstressed second syllable in sentence-fi nal words produced by the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 52 Figure 6. Acoustic vowel diagram, combined data (values in Hz): vowels of the stressed fi rst and unstressed second syllables in phrase- and sentence-fi nal words produced by the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 53 Figure 7. Average formant values of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables, with standard deviations (values in Hz): productions of the female speakers (JM, JS, NN, ST, TR, VT). 53 Figure 8a. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the stressed fi rst syllable in phrase-fi nal words produced by the male speakers (IS, NM). 54 10 Contents Figure 8b. Acoustic vowel diagram (values in Hz): vowels of the stressed fi rst syllable in sentence-fi nal words produced by the male speakers (IS, NM).