¿Lengua o hablante? – Investigando las alternancias coronal-velares en vilela

La elicitación de campo sobre el vilela, una lengua del Gran Chaco en severo peligro, reveló la existencia de una alternancia entre /t/ y /k/. Este fenómeno se ve, por ejemplo, en un conjunto de sufijos, pero ocurren alternancias incluso dentro de una misma palabra. Para el análisis, necesitamos separar las alternancias documentadas en dos grupos: aquellas conectadas con una tendencia general a la asibilización involucrando la coronalización y la palatalización, y aquellas  que son fluctuaciones entre oclusivas. Primero, investigamos sobre la naturaleza del contexto, la frecuencia y el orden de ocurrencia de la alternancia que han sido observadas en casi diez años de recolección de datos. Los resultados muestran que existen contextos preferidos de vocales altas y un orden velar-coronal presumiblemente típico. Luego, a través del análisis acústico de los datos de campo, demostramos que esta alternancia es significativa. Mientras la fluctuación de oclusivas se podría adscribir a especificidades de un hablante terminal, las alternancias asignadas a asibilación y palatalización (adelantamiento) reflejan los mecanismos de cambio de sonido en el área

Assessing incomplete neutralization of final devoicing in German

It has been claimed that the long established neutralization of the voicing distinction in domain final position in German is phonetically incomplete. However, many studies that have advanced this claim have subsequently been criticized on methodological grounds, calling incomplete neutralization into question. In three production experiments and one perception experiment we address these methodological criticisms. In the first production study, we address the role of orthography. In a large scale auditory task using pseudowords, we confirm that neutralization is indeed incomplete and suggest that previous null results may simply be due to lack of statistical power. In two follow-up production studies (Experiments 2 and 3), we rule out a potential confound of Experiment 1, namely that the effect might be due to accommodation to the presented auditory stimuli, by manipulating the duration of the preceding vowel. While the between-items design (Experiment 2) replicated the findings of Experiment 1, the between-subjects version (Experiment 3) failed to find a statistically significant incomplete neutralization effect, although we found numerical tendencies in the expected direction. Finally, in a perception study (Experiment 4), we demonstrate that the subphonemic differences between final voiceless and devoiced stops are audible, but only barely so. Even though the present findings provide evidence for the robustness of incomplete neutralization in German, the small effect sizes highlight the challenges of investigating this phenomenon. We argue that without necessarily postulating functional relevance, incomplete neutralization can be accounted for by recent models of lexical organization. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

TNd060413-01

The two brothers are wearing T-shirts and caps, given to them by the Coca Cola Company which had mounted a new solar pump and set up a container to be used as a shop for the community at San Plaas sometime in early 2006