DOCSLIB.ORG

Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia by Paul Edmond Arsenault A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto © Copyright by Paul Edmond Arsenault 2012 Retroflex Consonant Harmony in South Asia Paul Edmond Arsenault Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This dissertation explores the nature and extent of retroflex consonant harmony in South Asia. Using statistics calculated over lexical databases from a broad sample of languages, the study demonstrates that retroflex consonant harmony is an areal trait affecting most languages in the northern half of the South Asian subcontinent, including languages from at least three of the four major families in the region: Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Munda (but not Tibeto-Burman). Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages in the southern half of the subcontinent do not exhibit retroflex consonant harmony. In South Asia, retroflex consonant harmony is manifested primarily as a static co- occurrence restriction on coronal consonants in roots/words. Historical-comparative evidence reveals that this pattern is the result of retroflex assimilation that is non-local, regressive and conditioned by the similarity of interacting segments. These typological properties stand in ii contrast to those of other retroflex assimilation patterns, which are local, primarily progressive, and not conditioned by similarity. This is argued to support the hypothesis that local feature spreading and long-distance feature agreement constitute two independent mechanisms of assimilation, each with its own set of typological properties, and that retroflex consonant harmony is the product of agreement, not spreading. Building on this hypothesis, the study offers a formal account of retroflex consonant harmony within the Agreement by Correspondence (ABC) model of Rose & Walker (2004) and Hansson (2001; 2010). Two Indo-Aryan languages, Kalasha and Indus Kohistani, figure prominently throughout the dissertation. These languages exhibit similarity effects that have not been clearly observed in other retroflex consonant harmony systems; retroflexion is contrastive in both non- sibilant (i.e., plosive) and sibilant obstruents (i.e., affricates and fricatives), but harmony applies only within each manner class, not between them. At the same time, harmony is not sensitive to laryngeal features. Theoretical implications of these and other similarity effects are discussed. iii Acknowledgments Many people have assisted me in one way or another throughout the process of researching and writing this dissertation. The members of my thesis committee deserve special mention. Keren Rice is everything one could want in a supervisor. She was always available, always a good listener, always a source of excellent advice (linguistic and otherwise) and always had my best interest at heart. It has been a joy and privilege to study under her guidance. Alexei Kochetov has contributed more than anyone else to the substance of the dissertation. It was he that first put me onto the topic of consonant harmony. Several of the case studies presented in this dissertation were conducted in collaboration with him, including Kalasha (§3.3.2), Panjabi (§3.2.3) and Burushaski (§3.3.5). Elan Dresher always had insightful and constructive feedback. There is no doubt that the dissertation is stronger for his input. I am also very grateful to Gunnar Hansson (University of British Columbia), Yoonjung Kang (University of Toronto Scarborough) and Peter Avery (York University) for agreeing to read what is, admittedly, a long dissertation, and for serving on the examination committee. Their questions and comments in the final oral examination were both stimulating and constructive and will no doubt set the course for my research in years to come. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of this research project was the opportunity it afforded for collaboration with linguists from around the globe. Several people graciously contributed electronic lexical databases from their own fieldwork on lesser-known and under- documented languages of South Asia. The main contributors, and the languages for which they contributed data, are as follows (in no particular order): Ron Trail and Greg Cooper (Kalasha); Joan Baart (Kalami); Henrik Liljegren (Palula); the late Carla Radloff (Shina); Irena van Riezen iv (Kumauni); Binzy Joseph George and Christina Joseph (Korwa); Laiju Ek (Bagheli). Others shared research in the form of papers or took the time to discuss their area of specialization with me. In addition to some of the names just mentioned, these include (again, in no particular order): Jan Heegård and Ida Mørch (Kalasha); Pierpaolo Di Carlo (Kalasha); Claus Peter Zoller (Indus Kohistani); Rajesh Khatiwada (Nepali); Christopher Wilde (Humla Bhotia); Kevin Kopp (Dolpo Tibetan); and Stella Sandahl (Sanskrit). Parts of this research project were presented at various conference venues, where I received valuable feedback from fellow participants. My thanks to the participants at the 39th meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 39) at Cornell University in 2008; the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in San Francisco in 2009; the MOT Phonology Workshop at the University of Toronto in 2009 and 2012; the CRC-Sponsored Phonetics/Phonology Workshop at the University of Toronto in 2010 and 2011; and the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2012. In particular, I benefited greatly from discussions, mostly concerning theoretical approaches to consonant harmony, with Rachel Walker, Sara Mackenzie, Daniel Currie Hall and Peter Jurgec, among others. Thanks to my immediate and extended family who supported me in so many practical ways. Special thanks to John Bateman for many early morning drives to the train station and to Victor Ettel and Sue Perry-Ettel for giving me a place to rest my head in Toronto. Last, but not least, I thank my wife, Kyla, and our children, TJ and Hannah, for putting up with my long absences from home and with my absent mindedness when I was at home. More than anyone or anything else, they kept me grounded when the going got tough by reminding me of all that I love in the world outside of linguistics. v Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................. XI LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................................. XIII LIST OF APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... XV A NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS ........................................................................................ XVII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 LANGUAGES OF SOUTH ASIA ................................................................................................................. 3 1.1.1 DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES ........................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1.2 INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES ........................................................................................................................................ 9 1.1.3 MUNDA LANGUAGES ............................................................................................................................................... 12 1.1.4 TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGES ............................................................................................................................. 13 1.2 RETROFLEXION AND OTHER CORONAL ARTICULATIONS ........................................................ 14 1.2.1 ARTICULATORY PROPERTIES OF RETROFLEXION .............................................................................................. 16 1.2.2 CORONAL PLACES OF ARTICULATION .................................................................................................................. 20 1.2.3 ACOUSTIC AND PERCEPTUAL PROPERTIES OF RETROFLEXION ....................................................................... 23 1.3 CONSONANT HARMONY ....................................................................................................................... 27 1.3.1 DEFINITION OF CONSONANT HARMONY .............................................................................................................. 28 1.3.2 PARAMETERS OF ASSIMILATION ........................................................................................................................... 33 1.3.3 TYPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF CONSONANT HARMONY SYSTEMS .................................................................. 36 1.3.3.1 Similarity of interacting segments ..........................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Phonetics and Phonology of Contrastive Palatal Affricates*

    Phonetics and Phonology of Contrastive Palatal Affricates*

    Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory 2003, v.15, pp.130-193 Phonetics and Phonology of Contrastive Palatal Affricates* Amanda Miller-Ockhuizen and Draga Zec Serbian contains two classes of contrastive palatal affricates exemplified in tsar ‘gain’ vs. tar ‘magic’. In the phonological process of iotization, [t] patterns with [ts], and [k] with [t]. Articulatorily, [ts] is laminal, more front with compressed lips, while [t] is apical, more back with protruded lips. Acoustically, the affricates are distinguished by two prominent spectral peaks in the frication noise interval. [t]/[k] display lower frequency spectral peaks than [t]/[ts]. Different frequency ranges in the spectra of frication noise vs. stop bursts derive from constriction degree. Temporal acoustic attributes show that they behave as a class of affricates, different from both stops and fricatives. Phonetic differences in several articulatory attributes in the input contribute to cavity volume differences in the output, which result in higher frequency spectral peaks for the laminal affricate than the apical affricate. These differences define the natural classes observed in iotization and allow a phonetically accurate statement of the [t]/[ts] and [k]/[t] patterning. 1. Introduction Standard Serbian (formerly known as the eastern variant of Serbo-Croatian) possesses two classes of contrastive palatal affricates, each containing a voiced/voiceless pair. The difference between these classes can be broadly captured in terms of apical vs. laminal articulation. The apical class includes [t], which is voiceless, and [d], which is voiced. The members of the laminal class are [ts] and [dz], which are voiceless and voiced respectively.1 Articulatorily, the sounds in the laminal class are more front and produced with compressed lips, while the sounds in the apical class are more back and produced with protruded lips.
  • Phonation Types of Korean Fricatives and Affricates

    Phonation Types of Korean Fricatives and Affricates

    ISSN 2005-8063 2017. 12. 31. 말소리와 음성과학 Vol.9 No.4 pp. 51-57 http://dx.doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2017.9.4.051 Phonation types of Korean fricatives and affricates Goun Lee* Abstract The current study compared the acoustic features of the two phonation types for Korean fricatives (plain: /s/, fortis : /s’/) and the three types for affricates (aspirated : /tsʰ/, lenis : /ts/, and fortis : /ts’/) in order to determine the phonetic status of the plain fricative /s/. Considering the different manners of articulation between fricatives and affricates, we examined four acoustic parameters (rise time, intensity, fundamental frequency, and Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) values) of the 20 Korean native speakers’ productions. The results showed that unlike Korean affricates, F0 cannot distinguish two fricatives, and voice quality (CPP values) only distinguishes phonation types of Korean fricatives and affricates by grouping non-fortis sibilants together. Therefore, based on the similarity found in /tsʰ/ and /ts/ and the idiosyncratic pattern found in /s/, this research concludes that non-fortis fricative /s/ cannot be categorized as belonging to either phonation type. Keywords: Korean fricatives, Korean affricates, phonation type, acoustic characteristics, breathy voice 1. Introduction aspirated-like characteristic by remaining voiceless in intervocalic position. Whereas the lenis stops become voiced in intervocalic Korean has very well established three-way contrasts (e.g., position (e.g., /pata/ → / [pada] ‘sea’), the aspirated stops do not aspirated, lenis, and fortis) both in stops and affricates in three undergo intervocalic voicing (e.g., /patʰaŋ/ → [patʰaŋ] places of articulation (bilabial, alveolar, velar). However, this ‘foundation’). Since the plain fricative /s/, like the aspirated stops, distinction does not occur in fricatives, leaving only a two-way does not undergo intervocalic voicing, categorizing the plain contrast between fortis fricative /s’/ and non-fortis (hereafter, plain) fricative as aspirated is also possible.
  • 1 Consonant Harmony in Child Language

    1 Consonant Harmony in Child Language

    1 Consonant Harmony in Child Language: An Optimality-theoretic Account* Heather Goad Department of Linguistics, McGill University [email protected] Ms. dated 1995. Currently in press in S.J. Hannahs & M. Young-Scholten Focus on phonological acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 113-142. Abstract An analysis is provided of the consonant harmony (CH) patterns exhibited in the speech of one child, Amahl at Stage 1 (data from Smith 1973). It is argued that the standard rule-based analysis which involves Coronal underspecification and planar segregation is not tenable. First, the data reveal an underspecification paradox: coronal consonants are targets for CH and should thus be unspecified for Coronal. However, they also trigger harmony, in words where the targets are liquids. Second, the data are not consistent with planar segregation, as one harmony pattern is productive beyond the point when AmahlÕs grammar satisfies the requirements for planar segregation (set forth in McCarthy 1989). An alternative analysis is proposed within the constraint-based framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). It is argued that CH follows from the relative ranking of constraints which parse place features and those which align features with the edges of the prosodic word. With the constraints responsible for parsing and aligning Labial and Dorsal ranked above those responsible for parsing and aligning Coronal, the dual behaviour of coronals can be captured. The effect of planar segregation follows from other independently motivated constraints which force alignment to be satisfied through copying of segmental material, not through spreading. Keywords: first language acquisition, consonant harmony, underspecification paradox 1.
  • The Whistled Fricatives of Southern Bantu

    The Whistled Fricatives of Southern Bantu

    Just put your lips together and blow? The whistled fricatives of Southern Bantu Ryan K. Shosted12∗ 1Dept of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 1203 Dwinelle Hall #2650 – Berkeley, CA 94120-2650 USA 2Dept of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive #108 – La Jolla, CA 92093-0108 USA [email protected] Abstract. Phonemically, whistled fricatives /s z / are rare, limited almost en- Ţ Ţ tirely to Southern Bantu. Reports differ as to whether they are realized with labial protrusion and/or rounding. Phonetically, whistled sibilants are com- mon; they are regarded as a feature of disordered speech in English. According to the clinical literature, unwanted whistled fricatives are triggered by dental prosthesis and/or orthodontics that alter the geometry of the incisors—not by aberrant lip rounding. Based on aeroacoustic models of various types of whis- tle supplemented with acoustic data from the Southern Bantu language Tshwa (S51), this paper contends that labiality is not necessary for the production of whistled fricatives. 1. Introduction 1.1. Typology Few phonemes are as typologically restricted as the so-called whistled, whistling, or whistly fricatives / s z /.1 They are said to occur in only a handful of languages: the Shona Ţ Ţ (S10) and Tshwa-Ronga (S50) groups of Southern Bantu (Bladon et al., 1987; Sitoe, ∗This research was supported by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship to the author. I would like to thank John Ohala, Keith Johnson, and Ian Maddieson for their insights. I am also grateful to Larry Hyman for his help with the diachronic data.
  • The Violability of Backness in Retroflex Consonants

    The Violability of Backness in Retroflex Consonants

    The violability of backness in retroflex consonants Paul Boersma University of Amsterdam Silke Hamann ZAS Berlin February 11, 2005 Abstract This paper addresses remarks made by Flemming (2003) to the effect that his analysis of the interaction between retroflexion and vowel backness is superior to that of Hamann (2003b). While Hamann maintained that retroflex articulations are always back, Flemming adduces phonological as well as phonetic evidence to prove that retroflex consonants can be non-back and even front (i.e. palatalised). The present paper, however, shows that the phonetic evidence fails under closer scrutiny. A closer consideration of the phonological evidence shows, by making a principled distinction between articulatory and perceptual drives, that a reanalysis of Flemming’s data in terms of unviolated retroflex backness is not only possible but also simpler with respect to the number of language-specific stipulations. 1 Introduction This paper is a reply to Flemming’s article “The relationship between coronal place and vowel backness” in Phonology 20.3 (2003). In a footnote (p. 342), Flemming states that “a key difference from the present proposal is that Hamann (2003b) employs inviolable articulatory constraints, whereas it is a central thesis of this paper that the constraints relating coronal place to tongue-body backness are violable”. The only such constraint that is violable for Flemming but inviolable for Hamann is the constraint that requires retroflex coronals to be articulated with a back tongue body. Flemming expresses this as the violable constraint RETRO!BACK, or RETRO!BACKCLO if it only requires that the closing phase of a retroflex consonant be articulated with a back tongue body.
  • Recognition of Nasalized and Non- Nasalized Vowels

    Recognition of Nasalized and Non- Nasalized Vowels

    RECOGNITION OF NASALIZED AND NON- NASALIZED VOWELS Submitted By: BILAL A. RAJA Advised by: Dr. Carol Espy Wilson and Tarun Pruthi Speech Communication Lab, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Maryland, College Park Maryland Engineering Research Internship Teams (MERIT) Program 2006 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1- Abstract 3 2- What Is Nasalization? 3 2.1 – Production of Nasal Sound 3 2.2 – Common Spectral Characteristics of Nasalization 4 3 – Expected Results 6 3.1 – Related Previous Researches 6 3.2 – Hypothesis 7 4- Method 7 4.1 – The Task 7 4.2 – The Technique Used 8 4.3 – HMM Tool Kit (HTK) 8 4.3.1 – Data Preparation 9 4.3.2 – Training 9 4.3.3 – Testing 9 4.3.4 – Analysis 9 5 – Results 10 5.1 – Experiment 1 11 5.2 – Experiment 2 11 6 – Conclusion 12 7- References 13 2 1 - ABSTRACT When vowels are adjacent to nasal consonants (/m,n,ng/), they often become nasalized for at least some part of their duration. This nasalization is known to lead to changes in perceived vowel quality. The goal of this project is to verify if it is beneficial to first recognize nasalization in vowels and treat the three groups of vowels (those occurring before nasal consonants, those occurring after nasal consonants, and the oral vowels which are vowels that are not adjacent to nasal consonants) separately rather than collectively for recognizing the vowel identities. The standard Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) and the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) paradigm have been used for this purpose. The results show that when the system is trained on vowels in general, the recognition of nasalized vowels is 17% below that of oral vowels.
  • Acoustic-Phonetics of Coronal Stops

    Acoustic-Phonetics of Coronal Stops

    Acoustic-phonetics of coronal stops: A cross-language study of Canadian English and Canadian French ͒ Megha Sundaraa School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, McGill University 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC H3G 1A8 Canada ͑Received 1 November 2004; revised 24 May 2005; accepted 25 May 2005͒ The study was conducted to provide an acoustic description of coronal stops in Canadian English ͑CE͒ and Canadian French ͑CF͒. CE and CF stops differ in VOT and place of articulation. CE has a two-way voicing distinction ͑in syllable initial position͒ between simultaneous and aspirated release; coronal stops are articulated at alveolar place. CF, on the other hand, has a two-way voicing distinction between prevoiced and simultaneous release; coronal stops are articulated at dental place. Acoustic analyses of stop consonants produced by monolingual speakers of CE and of CF, for both VOT and alveolar/dental place of articulation, are reported. Results from the analysis of VOT replicate and confirm differences in phonetic implementation of VOT across the two languages. Analysis of coronal stops with respect to place differences indicates systematic differences across the two languages in relative burst intensity and measures of burst spectral shape, specifically mean frequency, standard deviation, and kurtosis. The majority of CE and CF talkers reliably and consistently produced tokens differing in the SD of burst frequency, a measure of the diffuseness of the burst. Results from the study are interpreted in the context of acoustic and articulatory data on coronal stops from several other languages. © 2005 Acoustical Society of America. ͓DOI: 10.1121/1.1953270͔ PACS number͑s͒: 43.70.Fq, 43.70.Kv, 43.70.Ϫh ͓AL͔ Pages: 1026–1037 I.
  • 5 Phonology Florian Lionnet and Larry M

    5 Phonology Florian Lionnet and Larry M

    5 Phonology Florian Lionnet and Larry M. Hyman 5.1. Introduction The historical relation between African and general phonology has been a mutu- ally beneficial one: the languages of the African continent provide some of the most interesting and, at times, unusual phonological phenomena, which have con- tributed to the development of phonology in quite central ways. This has been made possible by the careful descriptive work that has been done on African lan- guages, by linguists and non-linguists, and by Africanists and non-Africanists who have peeked in from time to time. Except for the click consonants of the Khoisan languages (which spill over onto some neighboring Bantu languages that have “borrowed” them), the phonological phenomena found in African languages are usually duplicated elsewhere on the globe, though not always in as concen- trated a fashion. The vast majority of African languages are tonal, and many also have vowel harmony (especially vowel height harmony and advanced tongue root [ATR] harmony). Not surprisingly, then, African languages have figured dispro- portionately in theoretical treatments of these two phenomena. On the other hand, if there is a phonological property where African languages are underrepresented, it would have to be stress systems – which rarely, if ever, achieve the complexity found in other (mostly non-tonal) languages. However, it should be noted that the languages of Africa have contributed significantly to virtually every other aspect of general phonology, and that the various developments of phonological theory have in turn often greatly contributed to a better understanding of the phonologies of African languages. Given the considerable diversity of the properties found in different parts of the continent, as well as in different genetic groups or areas, it will not be possible to provide a complete account of the phonological phenomena typically found in African languages, overviews of which are available in such works as Creissels (1994) and Clements (2000).
  • Effectiveness of Explicit Instruction in Pronunciation of English Unfamiliar Sounds: a Case Study of M.5 Students at Darussalam School, Narathiwat Province

    Effectiveness of Explicit Instruction in Pronunciation of English Unfamiliar Sounds: a Case Study of M.5 Students at Darussalam School, Narathiwat Province

    Effectiveness of Explicit Instruction in Pronunciation of English Unfamiliar Sounds: A Case Study of M.5 Students at Darussalam School, Narathiwat Province Nurhaswanee Boto A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Teaching English as an International Language Prince of Songkla University 2010 Copyright of Prince of Songkla University i ! " #$": &'(" ! # )## '(" * 5 , ) - ! .#/#) 01 12# 3 " #$"4 " 3 * '(" 2009 .##8 8 #39 /-# 1) '(" 1 1 # ! ! " #$" 3 - =! " (/ɡ/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ - /dʒ/ ) ) 4 /1 . ( /-s/ /-z/ - /-iz / ) -))3 - ( /-t/ /-d/ - /-id / ) 2) '(" ! " #$" 3) '(" #' 3 # 3 ! " #$" - 3# 4 # -/? '-@ #8 # '(" * 5 , ) - .#/#) .A 64 .##8 8) D1- ! '(" / (* '(" 2552 - 3# )914 2 - - .A 32 -- )-.A 32 ! .##8/) 4 ) 0 1 8 E ! .A 4 0 0 ! #8 .A 10 0 )/-# -9 ##' 33 ! " #$" ! #) / '(" # #8- )A ) ! #) / -#) / # ! - )-)# ! 1 8 E ! -##" ! & # ! - )# 3 ! '(" # #8- )A )/-# F(4 ))# #) '(" 33 ! ! " #$" -/-# /-#. A )/-# - # ! - )-)A 9 # iii #' 33 ! " #$" '(" #' 3 # ! - )- /-#. ) 0- .#! #8 8) 1 1! ! " #$" # #8- #8 1! )#3A - 33 #A #? 93 D3 ) 0- ) /-# # #8- #8 ) 33 #A #? 93 # ! - )-F()# #8 9 ! " #$")) # ! - F()# 3 G #8 ! " #$" 0- - 9 #H # !/)(8 . 8- # ! - )- ))#' 33 ! " #$" F( 9 ) ! " #$" #8 . .0-3#' 3)-#0-3 A D.! ) iv Thesis Title Effectiveness of Explicit Instruction in Pronunciation of English Unfamiliar Sounds: A Case
  • Vowel Acoustics Reliably Differentiate Three Coronal Stops of Wubuy Across Prosodic Contexts

    Vowel Acoustics Reliably Differentiate Three Coronal Stops of Wubuy Across Prosodic Contexts

    Vowel acoustics reliably differentiate three coronal stops of Wubuy across prosodic contexts Rikke L. BundgaaRd-nieLsena, BRett J. BakeRb, ChRistian kRoosa, MaRk haRveyc and CatheRine t. Besta,d aMARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney bSchool of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne cSchool of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle dHaskins Laboratories, New Haven Abstract The present study investigates the acoustic differentiation of three coronal stops in the indigenous Australian language Wubuy. We test independent claims that only VC (vowel-into-consonant) transitions provide robust acoustic cues for retroflex as compared to alveolar and dental coronal stops, with no differentiating cues among these three coronal stops evident in CV (consonant-into-vowel) transitions. The four-way stop distinction /t, t̪ , ʈ, c/ in Wubuy is contrastive word-initially (Heath 1984) and by implication utterance-initially, i.e., in CV-only contexts, which suggests that acoustic differentiation should be expected to occur in the CV transitions of this language, including in initial positions. Therefore, we examined both VC and CV formant transition information in the three target coronal stops across VCV (word-internal), V#CV (word-initial but utterance-medial) and ##CV (word- and utterance-initial), for /a / vowel contexts, which provide the optimal environment for investigating formant transitions. Results confirm that these coro- nal contrasts are maintained in the CVs in this vowel context, and in all three posi- tions. The patterns of acoustic differences across the three syllable contexts also provide some support for a systematic role of prosodic boundaries in influencing the degree of coronal stop differentiation evident in the vowel formant transitions.
  • Issue 31.2.Indd

    Issue 31.2.Indd

    Akanlig-Pare, G../Legon Journal of the Humanities Vol. 31.2 (2020) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v31i2 .3 Palatalization in Central Bùlì George Akanlig-Pare Senior Lecturer University of Ghana, Legon Email: [email protected] Submitted: May 6, 2020/Accepted: November 20, 2020/Published: January 28, 2021 Abstract Palatalization is a process through which non-palatal consonants acquire palatality, either through a shift in place of articulation from a non-palatal region to the hard palate or through the superimposition of palatal qualities on a non-palatal consonant. In both cases, there is a front, non-low vowel or a palatal glide that triggers the process. In this paper, I examine the palatalization phenomena in Bùlì using Feature Geometry within the non- linear generative phonological framework. I argue that both full and secondary palatalization occur in Buli. The paper further explains that, the long high front vowel /i:/, triggers the formation of a palato-alveolar aff ricate which is realized in the Central dialect of Bùlì, where the Northern and Central dialects retain the derived palatal stop. Keywords: Palatalization, Bùlì, Feature Geometry, synchronic, diachronic Introduction Although linguists generally agree that palatalization is a process through which non-palatal consonants acquire palatality, they diff er in their accounts of the phonological processes that characterize it. As Halle (2005, p.1) states, “… palatalization raises numerous theoretical questions about which there is at present no agreement among phonologists”. Cross linguistic surveys conducted on the process reveal a number of issues that lead to the present state of aff airs.
  • UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics

    UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics

    UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/00h9g9gg Author Shosted, Ryan K Publication Date 2006 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives by Ryan Keith Shosted B.A. (Brigham Young University) 2000 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2003 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Committee in charge: John J. Ohala, Chair Keith Johnson Milton M. Azevedo Fall 2006 The dissertation of Ryan Keith Shosted is approved: Chair Date Date Date University of California, Berkeley Fall 2006 The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives Copyright 2006 by Ryan Keith Shosted 1 Abstract The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives by Ryan Keith Shosted Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley John J. Ohala, Chair Understanding the relationship of aerodynamic laws to the unique geometry of the hu- man vocal tract allows us to make phonological and typological predictions about speech sounds typified by particular aerodynamic regimes. For example, some have argued that the realization of nasalized fricatives is improbable because fricatives and nasals have an- tagonistic aerodynamic specifications. Fricatives require high pressure behind the suprala- ryngeal constriction as a precondition for high particle velocity. Nasalization, on the other hand, vents back pressure by allowing air to escape through the velopharyngeal orifice. This implies that an open velopharyngeal port will reduce oral particle velocity, thereby potentially extinguishing frication. By using a mechanical model of the vocal tract and spoken fricatives that have undergone coarticulatory nasalization, it is shown that nasal- ization must alter the spectral characteristics of fricatives, e.g.