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5.3 Sgaw Karen Consonant Phonetics and Allophonic Variation

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5.3 Sgaw Karen Consonant Phonetics and Allophonic Variation Sgaw Karen as spoken by a member of the local North Carolina Karen community: a phonetic analysis and phonemic description Lúcia Lopes Fischer with the assistance of Tri Sa A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Linguistics. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Elliott Moreton David Mora Marín Jennifer Smith © 2013 Lúcia Lopes Fischer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT LUCIA LOPES FISCHER: Sgaw Karen as spoken by a member of the local North Carolina Karen community: a phonetic analysis and phonemic description (Under the direction of Elliott Moreton) This thesis describes some of the phonetic characteristics and provides a phonemic analysis of Sgaw Karen, a Tibeto-Burman language, as spoken by a community member in central North Carolina. All of the segments are analyzed in terms of minimal pairs in order to establish phonemicity. Additionally, vowels are described in terms of their formant frequencies, tones are described using their F0, and consonants are compared through spectrograms. Lastly, the structure of syllables is delimited and consonant clusters are discussed. Throughout, the findings for the native speaker consultant’s dialect are compared to the three other dialects documented in the literature: Moulmein Sgaw (Jones 1961), Bassein Sgaw (Jones 1961), and Yangon Sgaw (Lar 2001). iii Aos meus pais, Josi Ane e Valdemar, e a minha irmã Natasha, que me apresentaram a felicidade na vida e ao caminho da honestidade e persistência. Sem vocês nenhuma conquista valeria a pena. To my parents, Josi Ane and Valdemar, and my sister Natasha, who introduced me to the joy in life and to the path of honesty and persistence. Without you no achievement would be worth it. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the department of linguistics at UNC-CH for an interesting undergraduate and graduate experience, especially the faculty for inspiring me to pursue linguistics. I would like to thank Paul Roberge who has been a mentor since I first started at UNC, and who has only made my love for language grow and has shown me the fun in vikings. Likewise, to Elliott Moreton who has been my mentor throughout my exploration of phonetics and who has inspired me to pursue a career in the study of sounds. I would like to extend an immeasurable thank you to my thesis committee: Elliott Moreton, Jen Smith, and David Mora-Marín. Your endless patience, feedback, and insights have helped build this project (and improve it!), and I appreciate all of the time and effort you put into shaping me into a better linguist. This project would not have been possible without you! I would also like to extend an enthusiastic thank you to my wonderful native speaker consultant Ms. Tri Sa, without whose never-ending patience and knack for language this project would not have been possible. Thank you for spending countless hours with us recording in the at-times stuffy soundproof booth! A special thanks to the Juanita Melchert Fund who funded the project and without whose support I would not have been able to work with Ms. Tri Sa. I would like to thank Chris Wiesen at the Odum Institute who performed all of the statistical analysis of the data. v Many thanks to my colleagues and fellow linguists-in-arms, the linguistics graduate students. Especially to Jen Griffin and Amy Reynolds, with whom I shared a third “home,” and Kline Gilbert, Emily Moeng, and Caleb Hicks. You have provided advice, support, and a sounding board throughout this project and I am thankful for your help and support! A very special thanks to Mary Kohn for helping me with the vowel analysis and Praat scripting. I would have had to do so much more work without your help! I would also like to thank all of my friends (non-linguists and linguists alike) who have provided entertainment, support, and encouragement throughout this year. I would like to thank Adam Smith for endless support, conversations, and pep talks. I would also like to sincerely thank my sister Natasha for always having my back and supporting me in everything I want to do, especially in stressful times. You motivate me to be better! Lastly, but always first in my heart, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to my parents Josi and Valdemar, for helping me to get where I am today and for always being supportive of what I do. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you! Thank you! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1 1.1 Sgaw Karen in the United States and North Carolina .................................2 1.2 Meet the native speaker consultant .............................................................2 1.3 Overview of the word-order typology of Sgaw Karen ...............................4 1.4 Previously described dialects and points of distinction ..............................6 1.5 Scope of the study....................................................................................... 7 2. ELICITATION METHODOLOGY .....................................................................9 2.1 Data collection ............................................................................................9 2.2 Data analysis ...............................................................................................11 3. VOWELS .............................................................................................................12 3.1 Sgaw Karen vowel phonology.................................................................... 12 3.1.1 Previous research ............................................................................12 3.1.2 Data collection ................................................................................14 3.1.3 Data analysis ...................................................................................14 3.1.4 Phonological analysis...................................................................... 15 3.2 Sgaw Karen vowel phonetics...................................................................... 16 3.2.1 Previous research ............................................................................16 3.2.2 Data collection ................................................................................17 3.2.3 Data analysis ...................................................................................18 3.2.4 Phonetic analysis............................................................................. 20 vii 3.3 Vowel system summary ..............................................................................25 4. TONES .................................................................................................................26 4.1 Sgaw Karen tonal phonology...................................................................... 26 4.1.1 Previous research ............................................................................26 4.1.2 Data collection ................................................................................30 4.1.3 Data analysis ...................................................................................31 4.1.4 Phonological analysis...................................................................... 31 4.2 Sgaw Karen tonal phonetics........................................................................ 35 4.2.1 Previous research ............................................................................35 4.2.2 Data collection ................................................................................37 4.2.3 Data analysis ...................................................................................37 4.2.4 Phonetic analysis............................................................................. 40 4.2.5 Comparison of TS tones with those found in previously studied dialects of Sgaw Karen.......................................................................................... 52 4.2.6 Vowel duration ................................................................................57 4.3 Tones 2 and 5 ..............................................................................................59 4.5 Tone phonemic summary............................................................................ 62 5. CONSONANTS ...................................................................................................64 5.1 Introduction to the consonantal phonemic inventory for each dialect ........64 5.2.1 Previously described dialects: MS, BS, and YS.............................. 64 5.2.2 Summary of consonant phonemic inventory for TS’s dialect .........69 5.2 Sgaw Karen consonant phonology .............................................................70 5.2.1 Data collection ................................................................................70 5.2.2 Data analysis ...................................................................................71 viii 5.2.3 Phonological analysis...................................................................... 72 5.3 Sgaw Karen consonant phonetics and allophonic variation ........................74 5.3.1 Data collection ................................................................................75 5.3.2 Data analysis ...................................................................................75 5.3.3 Stops................................................................................................ 76 5.3.4 Fricatives........................................................................................
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