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PHONETIC Vs. PHONOLOGICAL LENGTHENING in AFFRICATES

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PHONETIC Vs. PHONOLOGICAL LENGTHENING in AFFRICATES UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2007) PHONETIC vs. PHONOLOGICAL LENGTHENING IN AFFRICATES Anne Pycha University of California, Berkeley [email protected] ABSTRACT root is suffixed, as in vason [va5on] ‘iron- Affricate consonants consist of two portions: SUPERESSIVE’). stop closure and frication. Can these portions play We can also compare the duration of [5] when it different roles in phonetic and phonological is singleton versus when it is geminate. In processes? In this study, I address the question by Hungarian, the instrumental case suffix -al triggers probing the behavior of Hungarian affricates under gemination when it attaches to a noun root: baj lengthening. I measure the duration changes that ‘trouble’, bajjal ‘trouble-INSTR’; vas ‘iron’, vassal affricates undergo in two types of lengthening ‘iron-INSTR’, etc. To get an idea of how processes: first, a phonetic process of final phonological lengthening operates, then, we can lengthening and second, a phonological process of compare the duration of [5] when it is singleton gemination. I show that these two processes alter (with plain suffix, as in vason [va5on]) with its the internal structure of affricates in very different duration when it is geminate (with geminating ways. The results suggest that the difference between phonetic and phonological processes is in suffix, as in vassal [va5:al]). fact deeper than a mere difference between We might reasonably expect phonetic “gradient” and “categorical” effects. lengthening to be smaller and more variable than phonological lengthening, which would suggest Keywords: affricates, geminates, Hungarian that the two processes lie along a continuum of sorts. If we introduce affricates into the picture, 1. INTRODUCTION however, we have the potential to uncover deeper Consonants can lengthen as the result of their differences. This is because affricates consist of position in a syllable, word or phrase. This finding two portions, stop closure and frication. While has been demonstrated for a number of different there is disagreement as to how these portions are languages [1]. For example, consonants at the best represented underlyingly [2], all theories agree beginning or end of a word tend to be longer than that the structure of affricates is more complex those which are medial. Such processes are than that of simple segments. typically considered to be gradient and phonetic, The null hypothesis is that phonetic and because they do not alter the phonemic status of phonological lengthening treat the complex the consonant. structure of the affricate in the same manner: for Consonants can also lengthen as the result of example, by lengthening both portions to a certain morpho-phonological conditioning. For example, a degree. If, on the contrary, phonetic lengthening suffix that triggers gemination will lengthen the specifically targets one portion of the affricate final consonant of the root to which it attaches. while phonological lengthening targets another, Such a process is typically considered categorical this suggests that the former is not merely a and phonological, because the phonemic status of gradient version of the latter. the consonant changes from singleton to geminate. To pursue this question, the present study Both lengthening processes affect the edges of analyzes phonetic and phonological duration roots or words, which means that we can study changes in stops, fricatives, and affricates in them in tandem. Consider the Hungarian root vas Hungarian. [va5] ‘iron’, which may occur in isolation or with 2. METHODS suffixes. To get an idea of how phonetic lengthening operates, we can compare the duration Stimuli, from [3], were constructed using a set of of [5] when it is word-final (when the root is bare) monosyllabic and disyllabic Hungarian noun roots with its duration when it is word-medial (when the ending in one of two affricates /ts, t5/ or one of 269 UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2007) three simple consonants /t, s, 5/. The root-final just before the release burst. Fricatives (and consonants occurred in four different syllable fricative portions of affricates) began at the onset types: CVC, CVNC, CV:C, and CV:NC, giving of aperiodic energy, and ended at the cessation of rise to a total of eight root shapes. The vowel of the aperiodic energy. Breathy offset at the end of final syllable was always /a/. words was not included in segment durations. We will be concerned with two comparisons. Table 1: Root shapes used in stimulus construction To examine final lengthening effects, we will Monosyllable Disyllable compare the target consonants in word-medial (CV).CVC /kat5/ /pamat5/ versus word-final environments ([kat5on] versus (CV).CVNC /mant5/ /parant5/ [kat5]). To examine gemination effects, we will (CV).(C)V:C /a:t5/ /tana:t5/ compare the target consonants in singleton and (CV).CV:NC /ga:nt5/ /zoma:nt5/ geminate environments ([kat5on] versus [katt5al]). Note that vowel length differences do not correlate 3. RESULTS with consonant length differences in Hungarian. Stress is always on the first syllable. 3.1. Final lengthening The root list was initially designed to contain 5 root-final consonant types x 8 word shapes x 2 Overall, results suggest that final lengthening repetitions of each shape = 80 roots. Because of targets the fricative portion of an affricate. Figure 1 gaps in the lexicon of Hungarian (for example, shows mean durations for stops, fricatives, and there is no monosyllabic noun root with the shape affricates in word medial and final positions. In this and subsequent graphs, T represents stops or Ca:n ), the final number of roots was 63. 5 stop portions of affricates, S represents fricatives To construct the stimuli, each noun root was placed in three environments: bare (unsuffixed), or fricative portions of affricates (/s/ and /5/ are suffixed with a plain case ending (Superessive pooled together), and TS represents affricates (/ts/ -on), or suffixed with a geminating case ending and /t5/ are pooled together). Paired t-tests (p < (Instrumental -al). 0.05) indicate that the fricatives lengthen significantly in the word-final environment (mean Table 2: Three environments for roots increase 39.3 ms), as do the affricates (36.2 ms). Bare Plain suffix -on Geminating suffix -al Stops, however, do not. /t at/ /t aton/ /t attal/ 5 5 5 Figure 1: Mean duration of stops (T), fricatives (S), /va5/ /va5on/ /va55al/ and affricates (TS) in medial (m) and final (f) /kat5/ /kat5on/ /katt5al/ environments, in milliseconds Each word (63 roots x 3 environments=189) 250 was embedded in a quoted phrase within a carrier 200 sentence Marika azt mondta hogy “X” gyorsan, * * “Marika said ‘X’ quickly”. For bare roots, this 150 context should trigger both phrase-final and word- final lengthening, maximizing the phonetic effect. 100 The order of sentences was randomized, and fillers 50 interspersed throughout. Three native speakers of Tm Tf Sm Sf TSm TSf Hungarian (2 female, 1 male) read each list (189 0 words x 3 speakers = 567 tokens total). They were instructed to pronounce the sentences in a casual Looking inside the affricates, we see that the manner. Recording took place using a head- durations of the stop and fricative portions change mounted microphone and Marantz digital recorder. by different amounts (Fig. 2). While the stop Segmentation took place in Praat, using portion shows a small, insignificant increase in waveforms and spectrograms. Stops (and stop duration, the fricative portion shows a substantial, portions of affricates) began when the preceding significant increase (mean 33.8 ms, p <0.05). vowel displayed no more periodicity, and ended 270 UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2007) Figure 2: Within affricates: Mean duration of stop and Paired t-tests (p < 0.05) indicate that all three fricative portions in medial and final environments, ms consonant types lengthen significantly (mean increase for stops: 69.9 ms; for fricatives: 43.9 ms; 140 for affricates: 38.1 ms). 120 Figure 4: Mean duration of consonants in singleton 100 * (s) and geminate (g) environments, ms 80 60 250 40 200 20 * * * Tm Tf Sm Sf 150 0 Duration ratios paint a roughly similar picture 100 of final lengthening for affricates. Ratios were 50 calculated by dividing the duration of the target by Ts Tg Ss Sg TSs TSg the total duration of the final VC sequence in the 0 root. Thus for kacs [kat5] ‘fringe’, the ratio for stop Looking inside the affricates, we see that the portion of the affricate is [t]/[at5]. A value of 0.25 durations of the stop and fricative portions again indicates that the [t] takes up 25% of this total change by different amounts (Fig. 5), but the duration. changes are not the same as what we saw with final Figure 3 shows duration ratios for simple lengthening. While the fricative portion shows a segments T and S, and for the T and S portions of very small increase in duration (mean 6.1 ms, p < affricates. Shading indicates the percentage that the 0.05), the stop portion shows a substantial increase target occupies in word-medial position, while (mean 33.0 ms, p <0.05). black indicates the relative increase (or decrease) Figure 5: Within affricates: Mean duration of closure in percentage that takes place in word-final and frication in singleton and geminate environments position. Under this calculation, the fricative portion of affricates is the only item that lengthens, 140 by a mean of 5.0%. Stop portion of affricates, as well as plain stops, actually shorten somewhat, and 120 plain fricatives do not exhibit any change at all. 100 This is probably due to the fact that the vowel in a * * VC sequence can also lengthen word-finally. 80 Figure 3: Target duration in medial (shaded) and final 60 environments (shaded + black), as percent of final VC 40 20 Simple T Ts Tg Ss Sg 0 Simple S Duration ratios included more segments for the Affricate T singleton-to-geminate comparison than for the medial-to-final comparison.
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