DOCSLIB.ORG

Voice Onset Time and Beyond: Exploring Laryngeal Contrast in 19 Languages

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Voice Onset Time and Beyond: Exploring Laryngeal Contrast in 19 Languages Journal of Phonetics 72 (2019) 52–65 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Phonetics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/Phonetics Special Issue: Marking 50 Years of Research on Voice Onset Time, eds. Cho, Docherty & Whalen Voice onset time and beyond: Exploring laryngeal contrast in 19 languages Taehong Cho a,*, D.H. Whalen b,c,d, Gerard Docherty e a Hanyang Institute for Phonetics and Cognitive Sciences of Language (HIPCS), Department of English Language and Literature, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdon-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea b Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, United States c Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 5th Ave., New York, NY 10016, United States 1940 d Department of Linguistics, Yale University, PO Box 208366, New Haven, CT 06520-8366, United States e Arts, Education and Law Group, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt Campus Q 4122, Brisbane, Australia article info abstract Article history: In this special collection entitled Marking 50 Years of Research on Voice Onset Time and the Voicing Contrast in Received 1 November 2018 the World’s Languages, we have compiled eleven studies investigating the voicing contrast in 19 languages. The Received in revised form 16 November 2018 collection provides extensive data obtained from 270 speakers across those languages, examining VOT and other Accepted 16 November 2018 acoustic, aerodynamic and articulatory measures. The languages studied may be divided into four groups: ‘aspi- rating’ languages with a two-way contrast (English, three varieties of German); ‘true voicing’ languages with a two- Keywords: way contrast (Russian, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, two Iranian languages Pashto and Wakhi); languages with a Voice Onset Time three-way contrast (Thai, Vietnamese, Khmer, Yerevan Armenia, three Indo-Aryan languages, Dawoodi, Punjabi Laryngeal Contrast and Shina, and Burushaki spoken in India); and Indo-Aryan languages with a more than three-way contrast (Jangli Universals and Variation and Urdu with a four-way contrast, and Sindhi and Siraiki with a five-way contrast). We discuss the cross-linguistic Multi-dimensional data, focusing on how much VOT alone tells us about the voicing contrast in these languages, and what other pho- Stops netic dimensions (such as consonant-induced F0 and voice quality) are needed for a complete understanding of laryngeal contrast in these languages. Implications for various issues emerge: universal phonetic feature systems, effects of language contact on linguistic levelling, and the relation between laryngeal contrast and supralaryngeal articulation. The cross-linguistic VOT data also lead us to discuss how the distribution of VOT as measured acous- tically may allow us to infer the underlying articulation and how it might be approached in gestural phonologies. The discussion on these multiple issues sparks new questions to be resolved, and provide indications of where the field may be best directed in exploring laryngeal contrast in voicing in the world’s languages. Ó 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 1. Introduction different voicing categories within and across languages arises as a predictable consequence of varying the area of the glottis. It has been just over a half century since Lisker and The underlying laryngeal setting was proposed to be effec- Abramson (1964) proposed an acoustic measure of Voice tively captured by VOT defined by the “relative timing of events Onset Time (VOT) as a unitary and eminently tractable basis at the glottis and at the place of oral occlusion.” There were on which to characterize the voicing categories of stops across later expansions to the application of VOT to include intervo- languages which had often been distinguished by seemingly calic stops (Abramson, 1977) and affricates (Abramson, independent phonetic features of voicing, aspiration and “force 1995). Since then, this innovative measure has been adopted of articulation.” Based on observations of voicing patterns in by virtually every experimental phonetic study that has investi- eleven languages, Lisker & Abramson made a key assumption gated acoustic characteristics of stop consonants, thereby that a fairly complicated acoustic output in association with greatly advancing our understanding of voicing properties of stop consonants and their typology in the world’s languages. * Corresponding author at: Hanyang Institute for Phonetics and Cognitive Sciences of In a recent Technical Note submission to Journal of Phonet- Language (HIPCS), Department of English Language and Literature, Hanyang ics (Abramson & Whalen, 2017, now also included as part of University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea. this special collection), Arthur Abramson and D. H. Whalen Fax: +82 2 2220 0741. “ E-mail addresses: [email protected] (T. Cho), [email protected] (D.H. have provided a retrospective commentary entitled Voice Whalen), gerry.docherty@griffith.edu.au (G. Docherty). Onset Time (VOT) at 50: Theoretical and practical issues in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2018.11.002 0095-4470/Ó 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). T. Cho et al. / Journal of Phonetics 72 (2019) 52–65 53 measuring voicing distinctions.” It bore largely on procedural studies provide ample evidence that VOT serves as a useful aspects of the application of VOT, its limitations, and ways to first estimate of a language’s use of laryngeal distinctions in expand the notion of VOT to a wider range of different phono- voicing. All 19 languages (21 varieties with three German dia- logical contexts. Inspired by this retrospective reflection on lects) studied in this special collection utilize phonetic voicing VOT, we have commissioned a special collection of themed as reflected in VOT differences in order to mark in one way papers in order to mark the occasion of 50 plus years of or another phonological contrast among stops, although they VOT under the title “Marking 50 Years of Research on Voice differ typologically in terms of how many laryngeal distinctions Onset Time and the Voicing Contrast in the World’s Lan- in voicing are employed in the phonological system. guages.” This special collection devotes itself to exploring the phonetic properties of voicing contrasts with a view to pro- 2.1. Languages with two-way contrast viding a contemporary lens on various aspects of consonantal voicing contrast within and across the world’s languages from Among the 19 languages studied, seven languages (Eng- both theoretical and methodological perspectives, and relevant lish, German, Russian, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Pashto points of debate that have endured alongside or as an alterna- and Wakhi) employ a two-way distinction for laryngeal contrast tive to VOT. between stops, which may be phonologically classified as [voiced] vs. [voiceless]. The two-way system, however, is fur- 1.1. Languages covered: 19 languages with 270 speakers ther divided into so-called ‘true voicing’ and ‘aspirating’ lan- guages, depending on whether the [voiced] stops are In this special collection, an impressive array of languages produced with voicing lead before the release (prevoicing) or was studied by 19 authors over 11 papers (10 new submis- phonation during closure (in the case of true-voicing languages sions plus Abramson & Whalen, 2017). The 10 new submis- such as Russian, Turkish, Portuguese, Pashto and Wakhi) or sions covered production data on the voicing contrast the [voiceless] stops are produced with aspiration (in the case obtained from 270 speakers across 19 languages. Among of aspirating languages such as English and German with the 19 languages studied are two languages whose voicing three varieties, Swiss, Bavarian and Saxon). VOT data mea- contrast has been well-documented in the literature: English sured for all these languages (except for Swiss German) indi- appearing in two of the contributions (Ahn, 2018a with 8 speak- cate that the two-way contrast can be adequately captured by ers; Kim, Kim & Cho, 2018 with 11 speakers), and German, polarization of voicing contrast along the VOT continuum. On with three varieties appearing across two contributions (Swiss the one hand, the true voicing languages show a substantial German: Ladd & Schmid, 2018 with 20 speakers; Bavarian negative VOT or voicing lead (i.e., phonation (voicing) during and Saxon varieties of German: Kleber 2018 with 21 and 20 closure) for the phonologically [voiced] stop category, whereas speakers, respectively). Other languages whose voicing con- the phonologically [voiceless] stops in these languages are trast has not been fully understood despite the substantial produced with a short-lag (positive) VOT. On the other hand, number of their speakers include Brazilian Portuguese (Ahn, the aspirating languages such as English and Bavarian/Saxon 2018a with 8 speakers); Thai (Kirby, 2018 with 12 speakers); German show the use of VOT primarily in the positive dimen- Turkish (Ünal-Logacev, Fuchs & Lancia, 2018 with 6 speak- sion—i.e., the phonologically [voiced] stops are by and large ers); and Russian (Kharlamov, 2018 with 60 speakers). Lan- phonetically voiceless with a short-lag (positive) VOT espe- guages that have received even less
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Journal of Language Relationship
    Российский государственный гуманитарный университет Russian State University for the Humanities Russian State University for the Humanities Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Journal of Language Relationship International Scientific Periodical Nº 3 (16) Moscow 2018 Российский государственный гуманитарный университет Институт языкознания Российской Академии наук Вопросы языкового родства Международный научный журнал № 3 (16) Москва 2018 Advisory Board: H. EICHNER (Vienna) / Chairman W. BAXTER (Ann Arbor, Michigan) V. BLAŽEK (Brno) M. GELL-MANN (Santa Fe, New Mexico) L. HYMAN (Berkeley) F. KORTLANDT (Leiden) A. LUBOTSKY (Leiden) J. P. MALLORY (Belfast) A. YU. MILITAREV (Moscow) V. F. VYDRIN (Paris) Editorial Staff: V. A. DYBO (Editor-in-Chief) G. S. STAROSTIN (Managing Editor) T. A. MIKHAILOVA (Editorial Secretary) A. V. DYBO S. V. KULLANDA M. A. MOLINA M. N. SAENKO I. S. YAKUBOVICH Founded by Kirill BABAEV © Russian State University for the Humanities, 2018 Редакционный совет: Х. АЙХНЕР (Вена) / председатель В. БЛАЖЕК (Брно) У. БЭКСТЕР (Анн Арбор) В. Ф. ВЫДРИН (Париж) М. ГЕЛЛ-МАНН (Санта-Фе) Ф. КОРТЛАНДТ (Лейден) А. ЛУБОЦКИЙ (Лейден) Дж. МЭЛЛОРИ (Белфаст) А. Ю. МИЛИТАРЕВ (Москва) Л. ХАЙМАН (Беркли) Редакционная коллегия: В. А. ДЫБО (главный редактор) Г. С. СТАРОСТИН (заместитель главного редактора) Т. А. МИХАЙЛОВА (ответственный секретарь) А. В. ДЫБО С. В. КУЛЛАНДА М. А. МОЛИНА М. Н. САЕНКО И. С. ЯКУБОВИЧ Журнал основан К. В. БАБАЕВЫМ © Российский государственный гуманитарный университет, 2018 Вопросы языкового родства: Международный научный журнал / Рос. гос. гуманитар. ун-т; Рос. акад. наук. Ин-т языкознания; под ред. В. А. Дыбо. ― М., 2018. ― № 3 (16). ― x + 78 с. Journal of Language Relationship: International Scientific Periodical / Russian State Uni- versity for the Humanities; Russian Academy of Sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Armenian: Phonology Part 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants Classical Armenian: Phonology 1
    RONALD I. KIM Classical Armenian: Phonology Part 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants Classical Armenian: Phonology 1 . Segmental phonology: consonants . The stops and affricates . Consonant alternations Classical Armenian – Phonology 1 — Segmental Phonology: Consonants 2 Segmental phonology: consonants . Classical Armenian had 30 consonants: . 9 stops: • p, b, p‘ [ph] • t, d, t‘ [th] • k, g, k‘ [kh] . 6 affricates: • c [ʦ], j [ʣ], c‘ [ʦh] • č [ʧ], ǰ [ʤ], č‘ [ʧh] Classical Armenian – Phonology 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants 3 Segmental phonology: consonants . 6 fricatives: • x, h • s, z, š [ʃ], ž [ʒ] . 6 sonorants: • m, n • r [ɾ] (tap?), ṙ [r] (trilled?) • l, ł [ɫ] . and 2 (3?) glides: w, v, y [j]. Classical Armenian – Phonology 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants 4 manner/ labial dental alveolar post- palatal velar glottal Phonology:place consonants alveolar stops and affricates: voiceless p t ʦ <c> ʧ <č> k voiced b d ʣ <j> ʤ <ǰ> g aspirate ph <p‘> th <t‘> ʦh <c‘> ʧh <č‘> kh <k‘> fricatives x h trill r <ṙ> tap (?) ɾ <r> sibilants: voiceless s ʃ <š> voiced z ʒ <ž> nasal m n lateral l ɫ<ł> glides w/v j Classical Armenian – Phonology 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants 5 The stops and affricates . A longstanding problem of Classical Armenian phonology is the realization of the stops and affricates. Traditionally they are transcribed as voiceless, voiced, and voiceless aspirated, e.g. t, d, t‘ [th]. Diachronically, they reflect a shift in manner of articulation similar to, but independent of, Grimm’s Law in Germanic: Proto-Indo-European Armenian *t (Tenues, voiceless) t‘ [th] *d (Mediae, voiced) t *dh (Mediae Aspiratae, voiced aspirated) d Classical Armenian – Phonology 1 – Segmental Phonology: Consonants 6 The stops and affricates .
    [Show full text]
  • Learning [Voice]
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Fall 2010 Learning [Voice] Joshua Ian Tauberer University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the First and Second Language Acquisition Commons Recommended Citation Tauberer, Joshua Ian, "Learning [Voice]" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 288. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/288 Please see my home page, http://razor.occams.info, for the data files and scripts that make this reproducible research. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/288 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Learning [Voice] Abstract The [voice] distinction between homorganic stops and fricatives is made by a number of acoustic correlates including voicing, segment duration, and preceding vowel duration. The present work looks at [voice] from a number of multidimensional perspectives. This dissertation's focus is a corpus study of the phonetic realization of [voice] in two English-learning infants aged 1;1--3;5. While preceding vowel duration has been studied before in infants, the other correlates of post-vocalic voicing investigated here --- preceding F1, consonant duration, and closure voicing intensity --- had not been measured before in infant speech. The study makes empirical contributions regarding the development of the production of [voice] in infants, not just from a surface- level perspective but also with implications for the phonetics-phonology interface in the adult and developing linguistic systems. Additionally, several methodological contributions will be made in the use of large sized corpora and data modeling techniques. The study revealed that even in infants, F1 at the midpoint of a vowel preceding a voiced consonant was lower by roughly 50 Hz compared to a vowel before a voiceless consonant, which is in line with the effect found in adults.
    [Show full text]
  • VOT in French As a Foreign Language: a Production and Perception Study with Mono- and Multilingual Learners (German/Mandarin-Chinese)
    SHS Web of Conferences 27, 09002 (2016) DOI: 10.1051/shsconf/20162709002 Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française - CMLF 2016 VOT in French as a foreign language: A production and perception study with mono- and multilingual learners (German/Mandarin-Chinese) Christoph Gabriel1, Tanja Kupisch2 & Jeanette Seoudy3 Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz1, Universität Konstanz and The Arctic University of Norway2 , Universität Hamburg3 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract. This study addresses the production of Voice Onset Time (VOT) in French as a foreign language (FFL). The learners are young multilingual learners who speak Mandarin Chinese as a heritage language along with German. To determine potential effects of the learners' multilingual background, these multilingual learners were compared to three control groups: (1) monolingual German learners of FFL, (2) monolingual Mandarin Chinese learners of FFL, and (3) native speakers of French (L1). In addition, a perception experiment was carried out to find out to what extent the VOT values measured in the production data contribute to the perception of foreign accent. Our results show that multilingual learners perform similar to monolingual learners, suggesting that multilingual learners are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged when acquiring the phonology of a foreign language. Furthermore, the learners' perceived accent in the perception data study mirrors the results from the production study. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • Sabiha Gökçen's 80-Year-Old Secret‖: Kemalist Nation
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO ―Sabiha Gökçen‘s 80-Year-Old Secret‖: Kemalist Nation Formation and the Ottoman Armenians A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Fatma Ulgen Committee in charge: Professor Robert Horwitz, Chair Professor Ivan Evans Professor Gary Fields Professor Daniel Hallin Professor Hasan Kayalı Copyright Fatma Ulgen, 2010 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Fatma Ulgen is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2010 iii DEDICATION For my mother and father, without whom there would be no life, no love, no light, and for Hrant Dink (15 September 1954 - 19 January 2007 iv EPIGRAPH ―In the summertime, we would go on the roof…Sit there and look at the stars…You could reach the stars there…Over here, you can‘t.‖ Haydanus Peterson, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, reminiscing about the old country [Moush, Turkey] in Fresno, California 72 years later. Courtesy of the Zoryan Institute Oral History Archive v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………....
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Armenian Dialects of Jerusalem Bert Vaux, Harvard University in Armenians in the Holy Land, Michael Stone, Ed. Louvain
    The Armenian Dialects of Jerusalem Bert Vaux, Harvard University In Armenians in the Holy Land, Michael Stone, ed. Louvain: Peeters, 2002. 1. Introduction The Armenian community in Jerusalem was first established somewhere between the third and fifth centuries, and since that time has remained relatively isolated from the rest of the Armenian-speaking world. It has furthermore been subjected to a degree of Arabic influence that is quite uncommon among Armenian linguistic communities. For these reasons, it is not surprising that a distinctive dialect of Armenian has emerged in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. Strangely, though, this dialect has never been studied by Armenologists or linguists, and is not generally known outside of the Armenian community in Israel. (Mention of the Armenian dialect of Jerusalem is notably absent in the standard works on Armenian dialectology and in the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, for example.) Those who do know about the distinctive speech of the Jerusalem Armenians generally consider it to be “bad Armenian” supplemented by words A thousand thanks to Vartan Abdo, Arpine, †Antranig Bakirjian, Chris Davis, Yeghia Dikranian, Hagop Hachikian, Garo Hagopian, Vartuhi Hokeyan, Tavit Kaplanian, Arshag Merguerian, Madeleine Habosian Derderian, Shushan Teager, Abraham Terian, Rose Varzhabedian, Aram Khachadurian, and Apkar Zakarian for all of the hours they devoted to assisting me with this project. The transcription employed here is that of REArm; linguists should note the following oddities of this system: <¬> represents a voiced uvular fricative, IPA [“]. <x> represents a voiceless uvular fricative, IPA [X]. <j> represents a voiced alveopalatal affricate, IPA [dz]. <c> represents a voiceless alveopalatal affricate, IPA [ts].
    [Show full text]
  • Voice Onset Time (VOT) Characteristics of Esophageal, Title Tracheoesophageal and Laryngeal Speech of Cantonese
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by HKU Scholars Hub Voice onset time (VOT) characteristics of esophageal, Title tracheoesophageal and laryngeal speech of Cantonese Other Contributor(s) University of Hong Kong. Author(s) Wong, Ching-yin, Juliana Citation Issued Date 2007 URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/55506 Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License VOT characteristics 1 Voice onset time (VOT) characteristics of esophageal, tracheoesophageal and laryngeal speech of Cantonese Wong, Juliana Ching-Yin A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007 VOT characteristics 2 Abstract The ability of esophageal (SE) and tracheoesophageal (TE) speakers of Cantonese to differentiate between aspirated and unaspirated stops in three places of articulations were investigated. Six Cantonese stops /p, ph, t, t h, k, k h/ followed by the vowel /a/ produced by 10 SE, TE and laryngeal (NL) speakers were examined through perceptual judgement tasks and voice onset time (VOT) analysis. Results from perceptual experiment showed lower identification accuracy in SE and TE than NL speech for all stops. Misidentification of aspirated stops as their unaspirated counterparts was the dominant error. Acoustic analysis revealed that aspirated stops produced by NL, SE and TE speakers were associated with significantly longer VOT values than their unaspirated counterparts. Velar unaspirated stops showed significantly longer VOT values than bilabial and alveolar stops in NL and SE speech. In conclusion, SE and TE speakers were still able to use VOT to signal aspiration contrast, but TE was unable to differentiate among different places of articulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Epenthesis and Prosodic Structure in Armenian
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Epenthesis and prosodic structure in Armenian: A diachronic account A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies by Jessica L. DeLisi 2015 © Copyright by Jessica L. DeLisi 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Epenthesis and prosodic structure in Armenian: A diachronic account by Jessica L. DeLisi Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor H. Craig Melchert, Chair In this dissertation I will attempt to answer the following question: why does Classical Armenian have three dierent reexes for the Proto-Armenian epenthetic vowel word- initially before old Proto-Indo-European consonant clusters? Two of the vowels, e and a, occur in the same phonological environment, and even in doublets (e.g., Classical ełbayr beside dialectal ałbär ‘brother’). The main constraint driving this asymmetry is the promotion of the Sonority Sequenc- ing Principle in the grammar. Because sibilants are more sonorous than stops, the promo- tion of the Sonority Sequencing Principle above the Strict Layer Hypothesis causes speak- ers to create a semisyllable to house the sibilant extraprosodically. This extraprosodic structure is not required for old consonant-resonant clusters since they already conform to the Sonority Sequencing Principle. Because Armenian has sonority-sensitive stress, the secondary stress placed on word-initial epenthetic vowels triggers a vowel change in all words without extraprosodic structure, i.e. with the old consonant-resonant clusters. Therefore Proto-Armenian */@łbayR/ becomes Classical Armenian [èł.báyR] ‘brother,’ but Proto-Armenian */<@s>tipem/ with extraprosodic <@s> becomes [<@s>.tì.pém] ‘I rush’ because the schwa is outside the domain of stress assignment.
    [Show full text]
  • A Cross-Linguistic Study of Voice Onset Time in Stop Consonant Productions
    Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing Vol. 13, No. 2, June 2008, pp. 215-232 215 © The Association for Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing A Cross-Linguistic Study of Voice Onset Time in Stop Consonant Productions Kuan-Yi Chao＊ and Li-mei Chen＊ Abstract This study examines voice onset time (VOT) for phonetically voiceless word-initial stops in Mandarin Chinese and in English, as spoken by 11 Mandarin speakers and 4 British English speakers. The purpose of this paper is to compare Mandarin and English VOT patterns and to categorize their stop realizations along the VOT continuum. As expected, the findings reveal that voiceless aspirated stops in Mandarin and in English occur at different places along the VOT continuum and the differences reach significance. The results also suggest that the three universal VOT categories (i.e. long lead, short lag, and long lag) are not fine enough to distinguish the voiceless stops of these two languages. Keywords: Voice Onset Time (VOT), Voiceless Stops 1. Introduction Over the past few decades, beginning with Lisker and Abramson’s [Lisker and Abramson 1964] study, a considerable number of studies have investigated voicing contrasts in stops by the use of voice onset time (VOT). VOT has come to be regarded as one of the most important methods for examining the timing of voicing in stops (especially in word-initial position) and has been applied in studies of many languages. However, only a few attempts have been made to examine VOT patterns in Mandarin so far. Three universal categories of phonetically voiceless stops are generally recognized [Lisker and Abramson 1964], and Mandarin and English occupy the same place along the VOT continuum according to this general categorization.
    [Show full text]
  • 66. the Evolution of Armenian
    1146 X. Armenian Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 1997c The prepositional group iy-and the orthography of Gospel manuscript M (Matenadaran 6200). Annual of Armenian Linguistics 18: 39−50. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 1999−2000 On the early development of Armenian dialects. II. The monophthongization of ay. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 20: 1−26. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 2001 Thoughts on Armenian accentuation. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 21: 65−73. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 2002 Aspects of Armenian dialectology. In: Jan Berns and Jaap Van Marle (eds.), Present- day Dialectology. Problems and Findings. (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Mono- graphs 137). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 141−157. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 2004 Armenian barwokʿ ‘good, well’. In: Adam Hyllested, Anders Richardt Jørgensen, Jenny Helena Larsson, and Thomas Olander (eds.), Per Aspera ad Asteriscos. Studia Indoger- manica in Honorem Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissen- schaft der Universität, 627−632. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 2006 Aspects of Classical Armenian orthography: Armenian e, and the Greek names in the Gospels. In: Anna Krasnuolska, Kinga Maciuszak, and Barbara Mękarska (eds.), In the Orient where the Gracious Light … Satura Orientalis in Honorem Andrzej Pisowicz. Cracow: Księgarnia Akademicka, 215−228. Weitenberg, Jos J. S. 2008 Diphthongization of initial E- and the development of initial Y- in Armenian. In: Alexan- der Lubotsky, Jos Schaeken, and Jeroen Wiedenhof (eds.), Evidence and Counter-Evi- dence. Essays in Honour of Frederik Kortlandt. Volume I. Balto-Slavic and Indo-Euro- pean Studies. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 609−616. † Jos J. S. Weitenberg 66. The evolution of Armenian 1. Varieties of Armenian 5.
    [Show full text]
  • 3.3 Classical Armenian Syllable Structure
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Epenthesis and prosodic structure in Armenian: A diachronic account Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mk6z9mq Author DeLisi, Jessica L. Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Epenthesis and prosodic structure in Armenian: A diachronic account A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies by Jessica L. DeLisi 2015 © Copyright by Jessica L. DeLisi 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Epenthesis and prosodic structure in Armenian: A diachronic account by Jessica L. DeLisi Doctor of Philosophy in Indo-European Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor H. Craig Melchert, Chair In this dissertation I will attempt to answer the following question: why does Classical Armenian have three dierent reexes for the Proto-Armenian epenthetic vowel word- initially before old Proto-Indo-European consonant clusters? Two of the vowels, e and a, occur in the same phonological environment, and even in doublets (e.g., Classical ełbayr beside dialectal ałbär ‘brother’). The main constraint driving this asymmetry is the promotion of the Sonority Sequenc- ing Principle in the grammar. Because sibilants are more sonorous than stops, the promo- tion of the Sonority Sequencing Principle above the Strict Layer Hypothesis causes speak- ers to create a semisyllable to house the sibilant extraprosodically. This extraprosodic structure is not required for old consonant-resonant clusters since they already conform to the Sonority Sequencing Principle. Because Armenian has sonority-sensitive stress, the secondary stress placed on word-initial epenthetic vowels triggers a vowel change in all words without extraprosodic structure, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonetic Properties of Oral Stops in Three Languages with No Voicing Distinction
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2018 Phonetic Properties of Oral Stops in Three Languages with No Voicing Distinction Stephanie M. Kakadelis The 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/2871 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] PHONETIC PROPERTIES OF ORAL STOPS IN THREE LANGUAGES WITH NO VOICING DISTINCTION by STEPHANIE MARIE KAKADELIS A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 STEPHANIE MARIE KAKADELIS All Rights Reserved ii Phonetic Properties of Oral Stops in Three Languages with No Voicing Distinction by Stephanie Marie Kakadelis 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. Date Juliette Blevins Chair of Examining Committee Date Gita Martohardjono Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Douglas H. Whalen Jason Bishop Claire Bowern (Yale University) THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Phonetic Properties of Oral Stops in Three Languages with No Voicing Distinction by Stephanie Marie Kakadelis Advisor: Juliette Blevins Almost all studies on the phonetics of oral stop voicing patterns focus on languages with a voicing distinction. This gives rise to some debate regarding which aspects of voicing patterns arise from inherent articulatory effects related to the production of a voicing distinction, and which aspects are intentional adjustments by speakers meant to enhance a phonological contrast.
    [Show full text]