Nasal codas in Standard Chinese: a study in the framework of the distinctive feature theory

Thesis (Ph.D.)—Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2006Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-147)This electronic version was prepared by the student. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.NIH Chyn Duog Shiah Memorial FellowshipPh. D

Sampling the progression of domain-initial denasalization in Seoul Korean

Word-initial nasals in Korean are known to exhibit prosody-sensitive denasalization. The literature on the subject is still scarce and even the basic description of the process is debated. This study tested the speculation that inconsistencies in the literature may be explained if certain features of denasalization have developed relatively recently as part of an ongoing sound change. Based on apparent-time data from thirty-two speakers of Seoul Korean, the study explored the development of denasalization over a fifty-year period. The phonetic manifestations of domain-initial nasals were examined, along with the effects of prosodic position, place of articulation, and the height of the following vowel. The results revealed that denasalization has advanced rapidly over time, acquiring more plosive-like features of devoicing as well as a complete lack of nasality. Alveolar nasals before a high vowel were most likely to show denasalization and devoicing. Interestingly, the cumulative effect of prosody became weakest and partial denasalization was least likely for the younger group. Based on these results, we speculate that Korean denasalization is in the process of being stabilized into a discrete phrase-level process from a more general, gradient phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening, consistent with the theory of the life cycle of phonological processes. Keywords: denasalization; domain-initial strengthening; articulatory strengthening; fortition; Korean; sound change; rule scattering; life cycle of phonological processes; apparent tim

Linguistic Nature of Prenasalization

The linguistic nature of the class of sounds which are traditionally called prenasalized consonants (PNCs) has never been adequately explored. The purpose of this work is to provide a descriptively adequate framework in which to characterize PNCs, and to express their behavior most generally. This is done within the theory of generative phonology (essentially the Standard Theory of Chomsky and Halle 1968), incorporating a theory of markedness and syllabification. It is argued that PNCs cannot be described adequately as monosegmental entities in linguistic theory. Rather, PNCs in all languages are claimed to be sequences of homorganic nasal and oral consonant in underlying phonological representations, which surface in systematic phonetic representation as (tautosyllabic) syllable onsets. For a language to exhibit such onsets, it must contain a costly (language-specific) syllabification rule which converts the unmarked syllabified string XN$CY (whose syllabification is given by universal convention) into the marked structure X$NCY, where $represents the syllable boundary. There is no linguistic level, nor any stage in phonological derivations, where PNCs must be represented monosegmentally, nor at which the characteristically brief nasal onset period must be referred to as an internal component of an oral consonant. Such properties as are necessary to fully characterize PNCs as physical-phonetic events are assigned to systematic phonetic$NC sequences by mechanisms within a phonetic performance theory. One of the very few languages where PNCs appear to contrast directly with ordinary heterosyllabic clusters of homorganic nasal and oral consonants is Sinhalese, an Indoeuropean language of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). An analysis of this language, and a similar case in the West African language Fula, are presented, and strong evidence is provided for the adequacy of a sequential analysis of prenasalization, in spite of the apparent contrast. The analysis of Sinhalese also reveals a rich interaction between the behavior of PNCs and the general syllable structure of the language. This relationship can be revealingly expressed only if the notion of the syllable is formally available in phonological theory

Korean laryngeal contrast revisited:An electroglottographic study on denasalized and oral stops

In several Korean dialects, domain-initial nasal onsets undergo denasalization as a recent sound change. Nasal stops may be realized as prevoiced or even devoiced stops. This makes it necessary to examine the interplay of phonetic properties of the denasalized and the three oral stop series as a whole, in synchrony and diachrony. What are their concomitant and conflicting properties? Our study provides a bigger picture of the laryngeal contrast in Seoul and Gyeonggi Korean by examining the acoustic distributions related to the laryngeal properties of the four stop series, using acoustic and electroglottographic data. VOT and 'f'0 play important roles in the distinction of the four stop series, in line with previous studies. While the contribution of voice quality is relatively minor, we show that it plays an essential role of disambiguation when the VOT–'f'0 space gets crowded: When lenis stops can be confused with other stops, there is an enhancement of breathy voice. Finally, we discuss stop variation according to prosodic contexts. We highlight the basis of both syntagmatic variation and paradigmatic contrast in their phonetic implementations. They illustrate a constant reorganization to reconcile contrast maintenance with constraints from articulatory and perceptual systems, as well as language-specific structures

Vowel height and velum position in German: Insights from a real-time magnetic resonance imaging study

Velum position was analysed as a function of vowel height in German tense and lax vowels preceding a nasal or oral consonant. Findings from previous research suggest an interdependence between vowel height and the degree of velum lowering, with a higher velum during high vowels and a more lowered velum during low vowels. In the current study, data were presented from 33 native speakers of Standard German who were measured via non-invasive high quality real-time magnetic resonance imaging. The focus was on exploring the spatiotemporal extent of velum lowering in tense and lax /a, i, o, ø/, which was done by analysing velum movement trajectories over the course of VN and VC sequences in CVNV and CVCV sequences by means of functional principal component analysis. Analyses focused on the impact of the vowel category and vowel tenseness. Data indicated that not only the position of the velum was affected by these factors but also the timing of velum closure. Moreover, it is argued that the effect of vowel height was to be better interpreted in terms of the physiological constriction location of vowels, i.e., the specific tongue position rather than phonetic vowel height

Linguistics

Contains table of contents for Section 4, an introduction and abstracts for nine dissertations

Similarity and Enhancement: Nasality from Moroccan Arabic Pharyngeals and Nasals

Experimental studies of the articulation, acoustics, and perception of nasal and pharyngeal consonants and adjacent vowels were conducted to investigate nasality in Moroccan Arabic (MA). The status of nasality in MA is described as coarticulatorily complex, where two phoneme types (pharyngeal segments and nasal segments) yield similar non-contrastive coarticulatory information (nasality) on adjacent vowels. The production and perception of the coarticulatory complexity of nasality in MA is the focus of this dissertation. An aerodynamic study demonstrated that nasal airflow is reliably present during the production of pharyngeal consonants, yet to a degree less than nasal consonants. This study also indicated this nasality is coarticulated on vowels adjacent to pharyngeal and nasal consonants. An acoustic study confirmed the patterns of coarticulatory nasality from nasals and pharyngeals and explored how nasality as a coarticulatory complex feature, a feature associated with two distinct segment types, affects its patterning in the language. This study reveals that vowel nasality is perceptually associated with pharyngeal, as well as nasal, consonants in MA, as evidenced by faster reaction times when vowel nasality was present in a lexical repetition task, compared to a condition where there was no vowel nasality, evidence that non-contrastive coarticulatory information is indeed perceptually informative not only in the context of phonologically nasal segments, but also in the context of pharyngeal consonants. Furthermore, there is evidence of perceptual compensation for nasality, wherein in the context of pharyngeal consonants listeners show patterns that suggest they do not \u22hear\u22 vowel nasality but rather attribute it to its source. Together, this is evidence of partial compensation since listeners retain sensitivity to and facilitation from vowel nasality, revealed by faster response times in the lexical repetition task. The results of the experiments outlined in this dissertation suggest 1) that nasality is a property of pharyngeal consonants and adjacent vowels that is highly controlled by speakers in order to maintain distinctiveness between pharyngeal and nasal consonant nasality and 2) that nasality is being utilized as a secondary, enhancement feature for pharyngeal consonants, potentially to maintain the distinctiveness of pharyngeal segments from the other guttural phonological class consonants in MA