90 research outputs found

    Russian assimilatory palatalization is incomplete neutralization

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    Incomplete neutralization refers to phonetic traces of underlying contrasts in phonologically neutralizing contexts. The present study examines one such context: Russian assimilatory palatalization in C+j sequences. Russian contrasts plain and palatalized consonants, with the plain consonants having a secondary articulation involving retraction of the tongue dorsum (velarization/uvularization). However, Russian also has stop-glide sequences that form near-minimal pairs with palatalized stops. In the environment preceding palatal glides, the contrast between palatalized and plain consonants is neutralized, due to the palatalization of the plain stop (assimilatory palatalization). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the neutralization is complete. To do so, we conducted an electromagnetic articulography (EMA) experiment examining temporal coordination and the spatial position of the tongue body in underlyingly palatalized consonants and those derived from assimilatory palatalization. Articulatory results from four native speakers of Russian revealed that gestures in both conditions are coordinated as complex segments, i.e., they are palatalized consonants. However, there are differences across conditions consistent with the residual presence of a tongue dorsum retraction gesture in the plain obstruents. We conclude that neutralization of the plain-palatal contrast in Russian is incomplete; consonants in the assimilatory palatalization condition exhibit inter-gestural coordination characteristic of palatalized consonants along with residual evidence of an underlying tongue dorsum retraction (velarization/uvularization) gesture

    A syllable-based investigation of coarticulation

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    Coarticulation has been long investigated in Speech Sciences and Linguistics (Kühnert & Nolan, 1999). This thesis explores coarticulation through a syllable based model (Y. Xu, 2020). First, it is hypothesised that consonant and vowel are synchronised at the syllable onset for the sake of reducing temporal degrees of freedom, and such synchronisation is the essence of coarticulation. Previous efforts in the examination of CV alignment mainly report onset asynchrony (Gao, 2009; Shaw & Chen, 2019). The first study of this thesis tested the synchrony hypothesis using articulatory and acoustic data in Mandarin. Departing from conventional approaches, a minimal triplet paradigm was applied, in which the CV onsets were determined through the consonant and vowel minimal pairs, respectively. Both articulatory and acoustical results showed that CV articulation started in close temporal proximity, supporting the synchrony hypothesis. The second study extended the research to English and syllables with cluster onsets. By using acoustic data in conjunction with Deep Learning, supporting evidence was found for co-onset, which is in contrast to the widely reported c-center effect (Byrd, 1995). Secondly, the thesis investigated the mechanism that can maximise synchrony – Dimension Specific Sequential Target Approximation (DSSTA), which is highly relevant to what is commonly known as coarticulation resistance (Recasens & Espinosa, 2009). Evidence from the first two studies show that, when conflicts arise due to articulation requirements between CV, the CV gestures can be fulfilled by the same articulator on separate dimensions simultaneously. Last but not least, the final study tested the hypothesis that resyllabification is the result of coarticulation asymmetry between onset and coda consonants. It was found that neural network based models could infer syllable affiliation of consonants, and those inferred resyllabified codas had similar coarticulatory structure with canonical onset consonants. In conclusion, this thesis found that many coarticulation related phenomena, including local vowel to vowel anticipatory coarticulation, coarticulation resistance, and resyllabification, stem from the articulatory mechanism of the syllable

    CONTROL AND BIOMECHANICS IN COARTICULATION: INSIGHTS FROM AN ULTRASOUND STUDY OF STANDARD MANDARIN APICAL VOWELS

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    This study investigated the extent to which speaker-induced control and biomechanics play a role in determining the outcome of spatial coarticulation. Employing ultrasound tongue imaging, coarticulatory effects from and induced on adjacent consonants were quantified as measures of coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness for the two apical vowels of Standard Mandarin in comparison to the three corner vowels. The results show that the two apical vowels are much less resistant to coarticulatory effects than the vowels [i a u], and they often do not induce larger effects on adjacent consonants than these vowels, due to speaker-targeted effects. It was also found that the retroflex apical vowel was consistently more resistant and aggressive than the dental apical vowel, due to biomechanical differences. Together, both of these findings implicate the roles of speaker control and biomechanics in coarticulation and highlight the need for a model of coarticulation to include both of these factors.Master of Art

    SKY Journal of Linguistics

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    SKY Journal of Linguistics, vol 30:201

    Catalan

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    This chapter presents a general overview of the phonetics and phonology of Catalan, taking into consideration both segmental and suprasegmental phenomena. The chapter provides an updated state-of-the-art report of the most recent investigations in this area. Though the report concentrates on the standard variety, Central Catalan, we also highlight the rich dialectal variation that affects both segmental and prosodic properties. After a brief introduction to the dialectal distribution of the language, the first part of the chapter is devoted to segmental phonology. In this part, we first present the basic segmen-tal inventories of the language, as well as syllable structure types; we then describe the phonological processes that affect both vocalic and consonantal systems. The prosodic part of the chapter covers the main prosodic characteristics of the language, followed by a description of the intonational variation found for a variety of sentence types

    Incomplete Neutralization in Articulatory Phonology

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    Previous studies have found small but significant phonetic traces of underlying distinctions for phonologically “neutralized” contrasts. This phenomenon, often called incomplete neutralization, has been found for final devoicing in many languages, (e.g., German; Port, Robert F. & O’Dell, 1985), but has also been reported for other neutralizing phenomena, including flapping in American English (Herd et al., 2010), monomoraic lengthening in Japanese (Braver & Kawahara, 2016), vowel deletion in French (Fougeron & Steriade, 1997), vowel epenthesis in Levantine Arabic (Gouskova & Hall, 2009), among others. In my dissertation, I explore the (in)completeness of Russian palatalization in the Articulatory Phonology framework, implementing gestural coordination of complex segments and segment sequences. In Russian, the contrast between a palatalized consonant (e.g., /lj/) and a plain consonant (e.g., /l/) is reported to be neutralized to the palatal counterpart when a plain consonant is followed by a glide. That is, the palatalization of the plain stop in the environment preceding palatal glides results in neutralization: e.g., /lʲut/ [lʲut] ‘fierce’ (underlyingly palatalization) vs. /ljut/ [lʲjut] ‘pour (3p pl)’(coarticulatory palatalization). However, given that “plain” consonants possibly feature a secondary articulation involving the retraction of the tongue dorsum (velarization/uvularization, see Litvin, 2014; Roon & Whalen, 2019; Skalozub, 1963), this dissertation tests the hypothesis that the gestural blending of two secondary articulation gestures (palatalization and velarization/uvularization) leads to the incomplete neutralization of underlying and coarticulatory palatalization in Russian. To this end, this dissertation will explore how complete the neutralization is between underlyingly palatalized consonants and coarticulatorily palatalized consonants (underlyingly plain). In so doing, I will first quantify the extent of palatalization by investigating temporal coordination in both complex segments and segment sequences in Russian and English. I will then present Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) experiments that examine temporal coordination and spatial positions of articulators involving both underlyingly and coarticulatorily palatalized consonants in Russian. I will also present simulations from computational modeling that can be tested against EMA recordings. In the first experiment, evidence from articulatory kinematic data collected with EMA on Russian palatalized consonants and English consonant-glide sequences revealed that gestural coordination for complex segments (Russian) differs from segment sequences (English). Specifically, the Russian data is consistent with the hypothesis that the constituent gestures of complex segments are coordinated according to their gesture onsets, showing no correlation between G1 duration and onset lag. In contrast, the English data exhibits a positive correlation between G1 duration and onset lag, suggesting that G2 is timed to some gestural landmark later in the unfolding of G1. Results from a second EMA experiment regarding incomplete neutralization of Russian palatalization also reveal that the palatal-plain contrast is neutralized, but more importantly, this neutralization is phonetically incomplete. In particular, both types of palatalizations exhibit the temporal coordination of complex segments, suggesting that plain consonants in the coarticulatory palatalization context are also palatalized. However, I also find residual evidence of an underlying tongue dorsum retraction for the coarticulatory palatalization. This is in line with previous findings of Russian plain consonants having secondary velarization. The computational simulations show that gestural blending of palatalization and velarization as well as their eccentric timing in coarticulatory palatalization results in incomplete neutralization of underlying and coarticulatory palatalization in Russian. This dissertation provides new insights for interpreting incomplete neutralization in the AP framework by showing that at least some cases of incomplete neutralization can be accounted for by gestural overlap. The results present substantial potential for the gestural overlap account to be generalized across a wide range of incomplete neutralization, including final devoicing. This dissertation is important both for the analysis of Russian palatalization and for discussion on incomplete neutralization, as well as articulatory phonology more generally

    Contextual reduction of word-final /l/ in Spanish:An EPG study

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    Rhotics.New Data and Perspectives

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    This book provides an insight into the patterns of variation and change of rhotics in different languages and from a variety of perspectives. It sheds light on the phonetics, the phonology, the socio-linguistics and the acquisition of /r/-sounds in languages as diverse as Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Kuikuro, Malayalam, Romanian, Slovak, Tyrolean and Washili Shingazidja thus contributing to the discussion on the unity and uniqueness of this group of sounds
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