DOCSLIB.ORG

Spontaneous Nasalization in Thai: a Case of Velopharyngeal Underspecification

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

SPONTANEOUS NASALIZATION IN THAI: A CASE OF VELOPHARYNGEAL UNDERSPECIFICATION Sarah E. Johnson, Ryan K. Shosted Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [email protected] ABSTRACT ter glottal consonants is velopharyngeal underspec- ification (VPU). Because the place of primary con- Spontaneous nasalization, the emergence of nasal- striction is at the glottis and below the velum, there ization in contexts lacking an historical nasal is no aerodynamic need to close the velopharyngeal phoneme, often occurs during vowels adjacent to port [12]. Contrast this with configurations such glottal constants, as in Thai. One explanation for as the voiceless plosive /th/ where velar closure is this nasalization is velopharyngeal underspecifica- necessary to facilitate pressure buildup at the lin- tion (VPU) of glottal consonants: the lack of any gual constriction for the release burst. Applied to requirement for velar closure. If VPU is the source Thai, the explanation of VPU would attribute vowel of spontaneous nasalization in Thai we expect to nasalization after glottal consonants to a lack of ve- find greater nasalization during glottal consonants lar closure during /h/ and /P/. This way, the origin of compared to adjacent nasalized vowels. To test this spontaneous vowel nasalization in Thai may actually we recorded nasal airflow in six speakers of central follow a similar pattern as French in that coarticula- Thai. Results showed greater nasal airflow during tion is involved. In French, VPO originated from /h/ compared to following nasalized vowels. This a nearby nasal consonant like /n/ and spread to the finding suggests that the starting point of nasaliza- adjacent vowel. Similarly, VPO in Thai may have tion in Thai is the glottal consonant and that nasal- originated during the glottal consonants /h/ and /P/ ization spreads to the following vowel. due to VPU and then spread to the following vowel. If spontaneous vowel nasalization in Thai origi- Keywords: Nasalization, Thai, aerodynamics nated from VPU of adjacent glottal consonants, we would expect to find greater VPO during Thai con- 1. INTRODUCTION sonants /h/ and /P/ compared to the following spon- taneously nasalized vowels. This is because the The historical process of vowel nasalization typi- starting point of nasalization would be the glottal cally occurs when a previously non-nasal vowel is consonant, while the following vowel may be nasal- in temporal proximity to an etymologically nasal ized through coarticulation. In the present study we phoneme. Through coarticulation the vowel be- analyze integrated nasal airflow (cumulative nasal comes nasalized. An example is Latin UNUS ‘one’ airflow during a segment) and the temporal loca- that later became French [˜œ] un when the nasal tion of maximum nasal airflow in Thai glottal con- consonant was dropped [13]. A second origin of sonants and vowels. Nasal airflow has been found to vowel nasalization, spontaneous nasalization, is the correlate with velopharyngeal opening and this mea- emergence of nasalization in contexts lacking any sure is often applied to study nasality [3, 6, 15, 16]. historical etymological nasal [1]. This process is While nasal airflow is correlated with VPO, the documented in languages like British English, e.g. airstream mechanism can affect this relationship. [h˜a:v@d] ‘Harvard’, and Thai, e.g. [h˜E] “parade" While we expect to be able to measure nasal airflow and [Pãw] “to take", and other languages including during /h/ and thus infer VPO, this will likely not be Lahu/Lisu, Bzhedukh, and Laos [1, 2, 4, 10, 11]. possible during /P/. Because the glottis is closed dur- Spontaneous nasalization in Thai only occurs after ing /P/, there is likely to be minimal supraglottal air- /h/ and /P/ and is more likely during low vowels flow. Therefore, while VPO may be large during /P/, [5, 11]. Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we would not be able to infer this from nasal airflow data of velopharyngeal opening (VPO) in Thai has alone. While we include /P/ in the current study to verified previous impressionistic accounts of spon- demonstrate this point, we expect that we will only taneous nasalization during low vowels after /h/ and be able to test our predictions regarding the origin to a lesser extent after /P/ [7, 11, 5]. of greatest nasal airflow for syllables beginning with One explanation for spontaneous nasalization af- /h/. 2. METHODS with fixed effects including syllable, location of maximum integrated flow (MaxLoc), and segment Six native speakers of central Thai were recruited type (consonant or vowel). Speaker was included as to participate in an aerodynamic study. Four of the a random effect. Due to the small sample size rep- speakers were female and two were male; all origi- resenting each gender, we did not include gender in nated from Central Thailand near the Bangkok area. the model. Their ages ranged from 18-28 y.o.. The data pre- sented here is part of a larger project on Thai aero- 3. RESULTS dynamics and phonation. The speakers produced a set of monosyllabic words and morphemes embed- ded in a carrier phrase, /phu:tĎ¿ khamĂ¿ wa:Ď¿ “_” Pi:kĂ¿ Figure 1: Integrated nasal airflow for syllables Ă with /a/. khraN ¿/ “Say the word ‘_’ again”. The target words varied the long vowels /a:, O:, E:, e:/ after /h/ and Integral of raw nasal airflow /P/. /a, O, E/ are reported to nasalize after /h/ and to a lesser extent after /P/, while /e/ is not reported to nasalize after either glottal consonant [5, 11]. We 2 also include the syllables /na:/ (contextually nasal- Segment ized), /tha:/ (non-nasal), and /da:/ (non-nasal) for Cons 1 Vowel comparison. Speakers produced 10-12 repetitions of each item. Integrated nasal airflow Data was collected with AcqKnowledge data ac- 0 quisition and analysis software (BIOPAC, version ha:ʔa: na: da: tha: 3.9.1). All data was sampled at 2000 Hz using Segment the MP100 data acquisition unit. Participants held a double-compartment mask against the mouth and Results of a linear mixed effects model (Table nose (Glottal Enterprise, Syracuse, NY), intended to 1) show significant effects between the location of capture oral and nasal airflow independently. Two maximum nasal airflow (consonant or vowel) and heated pneumotachs were inserted into vents on nasal airflow. Furthermore, whether the segment the mask. Rubber cannulae connected the pressure was a consonant or a vowel also effected nasal air- ports to a Biopac TSD160a pressure transducer that flow. Finally, the integrated nasal airflow of /ha:/ was recorded +-12 cm H20. A BIOPAC AFT6 600 ml significantly different, i.e. greater, than any other calibration syringe was used to calibrate the sig- syllable. nal for both the oral and nasal mask compartments. Figure 1 shows boxplots of integrated nasal air- The airflow signal was also rectified during each flow for all syllables with the vowel /a:/. Two post- recording session by adjusting the signal to zero hoc analyses of the lme model were performed by during a voiceless stop /k/. Acoustics were simul- calculating estimated marginal means with a Tukey taneously collected for segmenting purposes using multiplicity adjustment [9]. The first test was per- a C520 head-set microphone recorded at 44.1 kHz formed on integrated nasal airflow by Syllable con- (AKG Harman, Stamford, CT). trast, while the second test was performed on in- tegrated nasal airflow by Segment type (consonant 2.1. Analyses or vowel) within the same syllables. These tests re- vealed many differences in integrated nasal airflow Calibrated and rectified nasal airflow was normal- among segments. The consonant /h/ exhibited the ized to 20 samples over time, 10 during the onset greatest integrated nasal airflow of any other syllable consonant and 10 during the following vowel. The during the consonant. /n/ exhibited less integrated integral was then taken of all samples within the con- nasal airflow than the consonant of /ha:/, but similar sonant and the vowel separately. This yielded a sin- nasal airflow to other /h/ syllables (p>0.05). Both gle measure of cumulative nasal airflow during both /h/ and /n/ were produced with significantly more in- the consonant and vowel for each token. For each tegrated nasal airflow than their following respective token, the maximum of integrated nasal airflow was vowel (p<0.05). All other syllables are produced determined and logged as either occurring during the with similar integrated nasal airflow during the con- onset consonant or the vowel (MaxLoc). sonant and following vowel. The data were analyzed with a linear mixed ef- Figure 2 shows boxplots of integrated nasal air- fects model using the lmerTest package in R [8, 14]. flow for all vowels after /h/ and /P/. Again, we no- Integrated nasal airflow was the dependent variable tice that the consonant of /ha:/ was produced with Figure 2: Integrated nasal airflow for vowels after glottal consonants Integral of raw nasal airflow 2 Segment Cons Vowel 1 Integrated nasal airflow 0 ¢ ¡¢ £ ¡£ ¡ ha:¡ a: h : : h : : he: e: Segment greater nasal airflow than all other consonants and vowels, including other /h/ syllables (p<0.05). Ev- ery consonant /h/ exhibited greater integrated nasal airflow than every /P/. Most vowels after /h/ were also produced with greater nasal airflow than vow- Nasal airflow els after /P/, except for the contrasts /hE:/ vs /Pa:/, (Intercept) 0:90(0:07)∗∗∗ /hO:/ vs /Pa:/ and /he:/ vs any syllable beginning with Syllable:hE: −0:34(0:03)∗∗∗ /P/ (p>0.05). Furthermore, while nasal airflow was Syllable:hEe: −0:42(0:03)∗∗∗ greater for every /h/ compared to the immediately Syllable:hO: −0:24(0:03)∗∗∗ following vowel, nasal airflow was similar during Syllable:Pa: −0:65(0:04)∗∗∗ every /P/ and its following vowel. Overall, vow- Syllable:PE: −0:69(0:03)∗∗∗ els after /P/ exhibited similar nasal airflow as pre- Syllable:Pe: −0:69(0:03)∗∗∗ dictably non-nasal vowels of /da:/ and /tha:/, with Syllable:PO: −0:69(0:03)∗∗∗ the exception for the vowel of /Pa:/ compared to /hE:/ Syllable:na: −0:38(0:03)∗∗∗ and /hO:/.
Recommended publications
  • The Sound Patterns of Camuno: Description and Explanation in Evolutionary Phonology

    The Sound Patterns of Camuno: Description and Explanation in Evolutionary Phonology

    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 The Sound Patterns Of Camuno: Description And Explanation In Evolutionary Phonology Michela Cresci Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/191 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY by MICHELA CRESCI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City Universtiy of New York 2014 i 2014 MICHELA CRESCI All rights reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. JULIETTE BLEVINS ____________________ __________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee GITA MARTOHARDJONO ____________________ ___________________________________ Date Executive Officer KATHLEEN CURRIE HALL DOUGLAS H. WHALEN GIOVANNI BONFADINI Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY By Michela Cresci Advisor: Professor Juliette Blevins This dissertation presents a linguistic study of the sound patterns of Camuno framed within Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins, 2004, 2006, to appear). Camuno is a variety of Eastern Lombard, a Romance language of northern Italy, spoken in Valcamonica. Camuno is not a local variety of Italian, but a sister of Italian, a local divergent development of the Latin originally spoken in Italy (Maiden & Perry, 1997, p.
  • The Kortlandt Effect

    The Kortlandt Effect

    The Kortlandt Effect Research Master Linguistics thesis by Pascale Eskes Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts July 2020 Supervisor: Dr. Alwin Kloekhorst Second reader: Prof. dr. Alexander Lubotsky ii Abstract It has been observed that pre-PIE *d sometimes turns into PIE *h₁, also referred to as the Kortlandt effect, but much is still unclear about the occurrence and nature of this change. In this thesis, I provide an elaborate discussion aimed at establishing the conditions and a phonetic explanation for the development. All words that have thus far been proposed as instances of the *d > *h₁ change will be investigated more closely, leading to the conclusion that the Kortlandt effect is a type of debuccalisation due to dental dissimilation when *d is followed by a consonant. Typological parallels for this type of change, as well as evidence from IE daughter languages, enable us to identify it as a shift from pre-glottalised voiceless stop to glottal stop. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Alwin Kloekhorst for guiding me through the writing process, helping me along when I got stuck and for his general encouragement. I also want to thank the LUCL lecturers for sharing their knowledge all these years and helping me identify and research my own linguistic interests; my family for their love and support throughout this project; my friends – with a special mention of Bahuvrīhi: Laura, Lotte and Vera – and Martin, also for their love and support, for the good times in between writing and for being willing to give elaborate advice on even the smallest research issues.
  • Phonological Sketch of Helong, an Austronesian Language of Timor1

    Phonological Sketch of Helong, an Austronesian Language of Timor1

    Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society JSEALS Vol. 10.1 (2017): 91-103 ISSN: 1836-6821, DOI: http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52399 University of Hawaiʼi Press PHONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF HELONG, 1 AN AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGE OF TIMOR Misriani BALLE Payap University, Chiang Mai [email protected] Abstract Helong is an Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia with three dialects: Pulau, Bolok and Funai. Helong Pulau has 17 possible vowel sequences and a simple phoneme inventory of fourteen consonants and five vowels. The glottal stop /ʔ/ has a limited distribution, primarily occuring in word-final codas. Several morphophonemic changes, including metathesis, indicate that /ʔ/ is like other consonants. There is also a morphophonological process where the nominalizing prefix /h-/, a voiceless glottal fricative, causes a number of consonants to assimilate to the voiceless phonation of the preceding consonant, seen in muki ‘have (v.)’ → /hm/ [m̥ ] m̥ uki ‘wealth (n.)’, and spirantization as seen in kokon ‘sweep (v.)’ → /hk/ [χ] χokon ‘broom (n.)’. The /h-/ prefix has no assimilatory influence when it precedes voiced stops, as seen in ˈbutu ‘tie (v.)’ → ˈhbutu ‘bundle (n.)’, ˈdula ‘write (v.)’ → ˈhdulat ‘picture (n.)’. Keywords: Helong language, phonology ISO 639-3 code: heg 1 A brief introduction to the language Helong [ISO: heg] is a little studied Austronesian language spoken in Eastern Indonesia. Therefore, this paper will present new information based on the author’s own work on the language over the past nine years, discussions with linguists working in neighbouring languages and her involvement in two language documentation projects2 involving Helong. The author is also a native speaker of Helong Pulau born into a Helong family on Semau Island.
  • Marginal Phonology: Phonotactics on the Edge1

    Marginal Phonology: Phonotactics on the Edge1

    Marginal phonology: Phonotactics on the edge1 ELLEN BROSELOW Abstract As has long been recognized, the isomorphism between word edges and word- internal syllable edges is far from perfect. This paper examines the fit between an Optimality-Theoretic account of edge/interior asymmetries, using position- specific faithfulness constraints to protect edges or interiors of morphological constituents, and the actual typology of attested edge/interior asymmetries. A detailed analysis of the Indonesian language Balantak, in which the first mem- ber of a CC cluster is severely restricted unless that first C is root-final, is com- patible with the positional faithfulness account, but is problematic for accounts that explain greater freedom at edges solely in terms of licensing by higher prosodic structure or by phonetic context. I argue that a theory of edge/interior asymmetries must incorporate two possible functions of phonotactic restric- tions: to facilitate recovery of segmental contrasts, and to facilitate the parsing of strings into morphemes. 1. Introduction: Edge-interior asymmetries One argument for including the syllable in phonological representations ap- peals to parallels between medial phonotactics and the phonotactics of word 1. This work was supported by in part by NSF grant SBR-9729108 to the author and Daniel Finer and by funding from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelik Onderzoek NWO. Portions of this paper were presented at the 8th Manchester Phonology Meeting, UK, May 2000, the 8th Biennial Workshop on Phonology, University of Utrecht, June 2000; 6th Annual SWOT (South Western Optimality Theory) Conference, USL Los Angeles, April 2001; and at SUNY Stony Brook, March 2001. I am grateful to those audiences, particularly Yoonjung Kang and Ricardo Bermudez-Otero, and to an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions.
  • Production and Perception Mechanisms of Sound Change

    Production and Perception Mechanisms of Sound Change

    Production and Perception Mechanisms of Sound Change Edited by Daniel Recasens Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona / Institut d’Estudis Catalans Fernando Sánchez-Miret Universidad de Salamanca Table of contents Foreword .............................................................................................................................. 5 ROMANCE LANGUAGES French RODNEY SAMPSON Innovation without change: on a recent phonetic development in Parisian French ............ 7 Italian GIOVANNI ABETE On a dynamic threshold for the perception of diphthongization ......................................... 21 SILVIA CALAMAI / CHIARA CELATA Velar nasals in sound change. On the phonetic origin of Florentine anaphonesis .............. 39 STEFANO CANALIS Irregular open syllable diphthongization in Old Tuscan ...................................................... 55 MICHELE LOPORCARO On the subordinate status of the choice between formal and substantive explanation for sound change ......................................................... 71 Rhaeto-Romance STEPHAN SCHMID Palatal and postalveolar obstruents in six Italo- and Rhaeto-Romance varieties: phonemic merger or retention? ............................................................................................ 91 Romania DANIEL RECASENS Some controversial issues about the inception of velar softening ....................................... 111 Romanian IOANA CHITORAN / IOANA VASILESCU / BIANCA VIERU / LORI LAMEL Connected speech in Romanian: Exploring sound change through an ASR system
  • Rethinking the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *A- Prefix: Glottal and Nasal Complications 31

    Rethinking the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *A- Prefix: Glottal and Nasal Complications 31

    Journal of Asian and African Studies, No.96, 2018 Article Rethinking the Proto-Tibeto-Burman *a- prefix:＊ Glottal and Nasal Complications MATISOFF, James A. There has always been something rather anomalous about the PTB prefix conventionally reconstructed as *a-. While all the other prefixes set up for the proto-language (*s-, *m-, *b-, *d-, *g-, *r-) are consonantal, *a- looks as if it consisted of a simple vowel. My contention is that the phonetics and morphophonemics of this prefix were considerably more complicated than that: · The prefix should be reconstructed with a glottal stop preceding the vowel (i.e. *ʔa-), bringing it in line with the other consonantal prefixes. · Both stressed and unstressed variants should be recognized (i.e. *ʔa- vs. *ʔə-). · A nasal increment to the prefix seems to have arisen at an early date, via the mechanism of rhinoglottophilia (see Section IV), leading to forms like *ʔaɴ (stressed) and *ʔə̃- (unstressed). · Some languages, notably Mikir (Karbi), Lotha, and Akha, developed a palatalized as well as a non-palatalized variant of the nasalized prefix (i.e. *ʔaɴ- ~ *yaɴ-). · Certain languages (Tibetan, Proto-Lolo-Burmese) underwent loss (apheresis) of the vowel of the nasalized prefix, yielding prenasalized monosyllabic forms. · Lahu (and perhaps other languages) have somehow developed a stop-finalled variant in addition to the nasal-finalled one (i.e., *ʔaŋ > *ʔak-). See Section VII. The prefix occurs in dozens of languages with a wide variety of interrelated semantic functions, most of them apparently having to do with the notion of inalienable possession: kinship terms, body-parts, adjectives, genitives, 3rd person pronouns.
  • An Emergent Approach to the Guttural Natural Class John Sylak-Glassman

    An Emergent Approach to the Guttural Natural Class John Sylak-Glassman

    An Emergent Approach to the Guttural Natural Class John Sylak-Glassman (University of California, Berkeley) The post-velar consonants (uvulars, pharyngeals/epiglottals, and glottals) have been claimed to form the guttural natural class. Hayward and Hayward (1989; hereafter H & H) and McCarthy (1994) argue on the basis of evidence from the Semitic and Cushitic stocks that a guttural natural class must be formally recognized in phonological theory. H & H propose a ‘zone of constriction’ feature [GUTTURAL]. McCarthy (1994) renames this feature [PHARYNGEAL], refines its ‘zone of constriction’ basis in terms of orosensory perception, and integrates it into standard feature geometry by placing it under the PLACE node on par with ORAL place and its termini ([LAB], [COR], [DORS]). The claim is that the guttural natural class is an innate part of Universal Grammar. This study argues that while there is clear and persuasive evidence for the guttural natural class, it should be viewed as emergent and language-specific rather than innate and universal. H & H (1989:179-183) and McCarthy (1994:207-213) show that all the post-velar consonants lower or back vowels in phonological processes in Arabic, Hebrew, several Ethiopic languages, and D’opaasunte (Cushitic), and this is taken as strong cross-linguistic evidence for the guttural natural class. Supposing an innate and universal guttural natural class, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal consonants are predicted to lower or back vowels regardless of whether another guttural consonant occurs in a given language. Of the 628 language varieties (549 Ethnologue languages) in P-base (Mielke 2008), 13 varieties possess at least one uvular, but no glottals or pharyngeals.
  • Natural Phonology and Loanword Phonology (V/Ith Selected Exai4ples from Miami Cuban Spanish)

    Natural Phonology and Loanword Phonology (V/Ith Selected Exai4ples from Miami Cuban Spanish)

    NATURAL PHONOLOGY AND LOAMTORD PHONOLOGY (WITH SELECTED EXi\MPLES FROM MIAMI CUBAN SPANISH) By PETER CHRISTIAN BJARK>1AN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1976 Copyright by Peter C. Bjarkraan 1976 DEDICATION This dissertation is for MARY ANITA who was its inspiration and BOHDAN who in the end made it possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Besides all the expected types of indebtedness surrounding any advanced graduate education, this dissertation in one special sense or another owes some small part of its existence to each of the following institutions and individuals: My advisors, Bohdan Saciuk and Gary Miller, for remaining always patient and providing so many inspirations along the way. Much of what I know about phonology can be credited directly to Gary Miller; and Bohdan Saciuk has been the kind of teacher, counselor, and personal friend I am not likely, soon if ever, to meet again. The Graduate Council and the Faculty of the Program in Linguistics, for generously awarding the Graduate Council Fellowship and two Graduate Research Assistantships which have made my studies at the University of Florida financially possible. The Department of English at George Mason University for a faculty appointment which provided the needed final impetus for my work. David Stampe, for his early encouragement and for providing me with a topic of relevance. Also, for better or for worse, David's unbroken silence has repeatedly forced me to reach my own unique and hopefully fresh solutions to the problems and issues his theories have inevitably generated.
  • The Phonetics of English Pronunciation - Week 3

    The Phonetics of English Pronunciation - Week 3

    Version SS 2008 The Phonetics of English Pronunciation - Week 3 W.Barry Institut für Phonetik Universität des Saarlandes IPUS 1 How far have we got, and what did I ask you to do? 1. I suggested that we need to be able to describe sounds if we are going to be able to deal with differences! - We looked briefly at consonants acccording to their place & manner of articulation and their voicing. And the homework question was: - What are the dimensions used for classifying consonants? Answer: No problem (for MOST of you!) - For each dimension, give example German word pairs with two consonants that are different ONLY because of a switch in that dimension. Some of you clearly didn't consult the script: It is corrct that we distingish obstruents and sonorants, but they are not the basis for classifying consonants in general. Some of you started at a finer level than place, manner and voice, giving the different places of articulation (without actually saying that "place" was the dimension they belong to). 2 Example word-pairs Place: mein vs nein; Laus vs. Lauch; kicken vs. kippen /x/ (Why aren't "fad" vs. "Bad" or "Hut" vs. "gut" good examples?) Manner: mein vs Bein; Laus vs. laut; lacken vs. lachen /x/ (Why isn't "Saat" vs. "Tat" a good example?) Voicing: Bein vs. Pein; Wein vs. fein; reisen vs. reißen /v/ /z/ /s/ (Why isn't "Sand" vs. "Hans" a good example?) We started with German words to make it clear that there is nothing very special about the descriptive categories we are talking about.
  • Understanding Nasality

    Understanding Nasality

    UNDERSTANDING NASALITY by Karthik Durvasula A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Fall 2009 Copyright 2009 Karthik Durvasula All Rights Reserved UNDERSTANDING NASALITY by Karthik Durvasula Approved: Frederick Adams, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science Approved: George H. Watson, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: Debra Hess Norris, M.S. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Peter Cole, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: William J. Idsardi, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Jeffrey N. Heinz, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Uri Tadmor, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In my time as a graduate student, I have read, at least, a few dissertations.
  • Voicing of Glottal Consonants and Non-Modal Vowels

    Voicing of Glottal Consonants and Non-Modal Vowels

    [Preprint of paper accepted for publication in Journal of the International Phonetic Association] VOICING OF GLOTTAL CONSONANTS AND NON-MODAL VOWELS Marc Garellek, Yuan Chai, Yaqian Huang, and Maxine Van Doren UC San Diego [email protected] ABSTRACT Variation in voicing is common among sounds of the world’s languages: sounds that are analyzed as voiceless can undergo voicing, and those analyzed as voiced can devoice. Among voiceless glottal sounds in particular, voicing is widespread: linguists often expect the voiceless glottal stop [ʔ] and fricative [h] to be fully voiced, especially between vowels. In this study, we use audio recordings from Illustrations of the International Phonetic Alphabet to explore the extent to which glottal consonants and non-modal (breathy and creaky) vowels differ in terms of percentage voicing and voicing intensity in three phrasal positions. We find that voiceless [h] is only slightly less voiced than voiced [ɦ] in initial position. Between two vowels, both [h] and [ɦ] are as voiced as breathy vowels. Glottal stops and creaky vowels are both characterized by high percentages of voicing, but they differ in voicing intensity: in all phrasal positions, glottal stops generally have periods of strong and weak voicing, whereas creaky vowels are strongly voiced. In contrast, vowels described as ‘rearticulated,’ ‘checked,’ or ‘glottalized’ show similar drops in voicing intensity to glottal stops. We interpret these results through an articulatory lens: glottal consonants and non-modal vowels are both modulations in phonation resulting from laryngeal constriction and vocal fold spreading. We argue further that, because voicing during [ʔ] and [h] is largely predictable from respiratory and prosodic constraints, many cases of [ʔ] and [h] can be considered to be phonetically underspecified for voicing.
  • Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zmb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 74-3207

    Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zmb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 74-3207

    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from die document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.