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On Ejective Fricatives in Omani Mehri Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 9 (2017) 139–159 brill.com/aall On ejective fricatives in Omani Mehri Rachid Ridouane* Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, cnrs/Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris [email protected] Cédric Gendrot Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, cnrs/Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris [email protected] Abstract Ejective fricatives are extremely rare cross-linguistically. This infrequency is generally attributed to the incompatibility of two aerodynamic requirements: airflow to create noise frication and a high intraoral air pressure to implement ejectivity. Seeking to determine how this incompatibility is solved, this study presents an acoustic investi- gation of initial and intervocalic ejective fricatives in Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language spoken in Oman. Based on data from 5 Mehri speakers, the analysis of differ- ent temporal and non-temporal parameters shows a high degree of variability in the way ejectivity is implemented in fricatives. Much of this variability is shaped by the position of the segments within the word. In initial position, the ejectivity of fricatives translates into a frequent presence of post-frication glottal lags, higher intensity and higher center of gravity. These acoustic attributes are less frequently encountered in intervocalic position. In this position, it is argued, the systematic diphthongization of the following long vowel, induced by ejectivity combined with dorsopharyngealisation, is salient enough to allow the contrast of ejectivity to be recovered. Keywords ejective fricatives – acoustics – Mehri – Modern South Arabian language * This work was funded by a grant from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche Scien- tifique (anr program OmanSam) and by the Labex efl (anr/CGI). We would like to warmly thank the Omani participants for their help and enthusiasm during the study visit of the first author in Salalah, and the reviewer for the careful and thorough review of this manuscript. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/18776930-00901008 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:44:52PM via free access 140 ridouane and gendrot 1 Introduction Ejective fricatives are extremely rare in the world’s languages; only 3.7% of the languages were reported to have at least one such segment (Maddieson 2013). The rarity of ejective fricatives is attributed to aerodynamic constraints that make them acoustically instable: the continuing flow of air necessary to the production of frication is incompatible with the increasing of intraoral air pres- sure necessary to the production of ejectivity (Maddieson 1998, Shosted and Rose 2011). This incompatibility raises the question of whether these fricatives are real ejectives, or whether they should on closer examination prove to be dis- tinguished from their pulmonic counterparts by some other dimension. The present study examines the acoustic cues to ejectivity in fricatives of Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language spoken in Oman. The aim is to show how native speakers solve the problematic combination of glottal constriction and frication noise. In a short abstract entitled ‘Combining frication and glottal constriction: Two solutions to a dilemma’, Maddieson (1997) proposed two mechanisms to solve the incompatibility between frication noise and glottal constriction. These two solutions were described in some detail in two later studies (Maddieson 1998, Maddieson et al. 2001). The first solution was achieved through a spe- cific timing between frication noise and glottal constriction: a non-overlapping pulmonic frication followed by a glottal stop. Used in Yapese, an Austrone- sian language spoken in the Micronesian state of Yap, this sequencing strategy, while it enabled speakers to generate sufficient frication duration for place identification while maintaining distinctiveness from plain fricatives, raised the question of whether these fricatives should be termed ejectives in the canonical phonetic sense of this term or whether they should be considered as sequences of fricative + glottal stop (Maddieson 1998). The second solution, observed in Tlingit (Maddieson et al. 2001), a Na-Dene language spoken in the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, was to produce ejective fricatives with a much narrower constriction than was used in their pulmonic counter- parts. This allowed for glottal closure to overlap the entire frication duration while producing high intra-oral pressure, suggesting that they were indeed ejectives. This ‘canonical’ ejection of a fricative translated acoustically into shorter duration and a tendency for “scrapiness” or pulsing during frication noise. Faced with the same dilemma, Shosted and Rose (2011), based on acoustic data from Tigrinya, an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea, posited a third solution. They showed that ejective /s’/ in Tigrinya was generally realized not as a fricative but as an affricate [ts’]. Affrication, manifested with Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 9 (2017) 139–159 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:44:52PM via free access on ejective fricatives in omani mehri 141 pre-frication closure lag, was interpreted as a general strategy used to increase intraoral air pressure. As reported by Maddieson et al. (2001), Tlingit ejective fricatives also displayed (near-)silent periods preceding frication noise. The interpretation of this gap differed, however. While Maddieson et al. (2001) interpreted it as glottal closure, Shosted and Rose (2011) posited that the source of this closure is oral. The phonetic implementation of ejective fricatives has been instrumentally examined in some other languages, including Amharic (Demolin 2002), Kabar- dian (Gordon and Appelbaum 2006), and Upper Necaxa Totonac (Beck 2006). In an extensive survey of the characteristics of ejective fricatives in these lan- guages, Shosted and Rose (2011) showed that they acoustically displayed shorter and ‘scrapy’ frication noise, generally preceded and/or followed by a silent interval. The shorter duration of the frication portion of fricatives produced with the ejective mechanism is expected given the small volume of air available and the limited mobility of the larynx. The short duration of ejective fricatives was not however systematically reported. In Tlingit, for example, Maddieson et al. (2001) reported averages well over 100 ms in duration. A range of dura- tion similar to what is observed for pulmonic fricatives in other languages. The tendency for scrapiness during frication noise, which translates into a trill-like effect, is attributed to intermittent obstructions of the narrow construction, either due to articulators or saliva (Maddieson et al. 2001). The scrapy qual- ity may also be caused by friction at the aryepiglottic folds (Esling 1996, Moisik 2008). In the present study we examine the acoustic characteristics of Mehri ejec- tive initial and intervocalic fricatives and show how native speakers of this language solve the frication and ejectivity aerodynamic dilemma in light of what has been reported for other related and unrelated languages. We begin with some background information on Mehri and its consonantal system and review some of previous reports on ejective consonants in this language. 2 Ejectives in Mehri phonological system Mehri belongs to the Modern South Arabian (msa) languages, a subgroup of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, spoken in Oman (and also in Yemen). In addition to Mehri, this family includes 5 other languages: Baṭħari, Harsūsi, Jibbali, Hobyot and Soqotri. Mehri, spoken by an estimated 50.800 speakers, is considered by the unesco as definitely endangered. The situation of the other msa languages is critical: Baṭħari (200 speakers), Harsūsi (600 speakers), Hobyōt (100 speakers), and Jibbali (25000 speakers). Mehri and the Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 9 (2017) 139–159 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 08:44:52PM via free access 142 ridouane and gendrot table 1 The consonantal system of Mehri (adapted from Bendjaballah and Ségéral 2014) lab. interd. alv. lat. pal. vel. uvul. phar. lar. obstruents stops voiceless t k ʔ voiced b d g ejective t’ k’ fricatives voiceless f θ s ɬ ʃ χ ħ h voiced ð z ʁ (ʕ) ejective θ’ s’ ɬ’ ʃ’ sonorants nasals m n liquids (voiced) r l glides j w other msa languages are particularly threatened by the prestigious status of Arabic, the only official and national language of Oman. Arabic and msa lan- guages are both related since they are both Semitic languages. The exact nature of this relationship is still a matter of controversy (Hetzron 1974, Corriente 2003). The common classification, though not uncontroversial, views msa lan- guages as part of a South branch of West Semitic and Arabic as part of a Central branch of West Semitic (Hetzron 1997). Arabic and msa languages are mutually incomprehensible. The variety of Mehri investigated in this study is spoken in Salalah, in the province of Dhofar. Its consonantal system is given in Table 1. In addition to voiceless and voiced stops and fricatives, the langue has ejective stops as well as a series of 4 ejective fricatives [θ’, s’, ɬ’, ʃ’]. Like other Semitic languages, it lacks voiceless labial stop /p/ and labiodental voiced fricative /v/. Each segment in Table 1 has a geminate counterpart which can be either lexically given or phonologically derived (Lonnet 1993, Rubin 2010, Watson 2012, Bendjaballah and Ridouane 2016). Ejectives were shown to pattern together
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