According to previous investigations of gestural patterning, consonant gestures exhibit less temporal overlap in a syllable/word onset than in a coda or across syllables.Additionally, front-to-back order of place of articulation in stop-stop sequences (labialcoronal, coronal-dorsal, labial-dorsal) exhibits more overlap than the opposite order. One possible account for these differences is that substantial overlap of obstruent gestures may threaten their perceptual recoverability, particularly word/utterance-initially and in a backto-front sequence. We report here on a magnetometer study of gestural overlap, investigating the role of perceptual recoverability. We focus on Georgian, which allows stop sequences in different positions in the word. C1C2 sequences were examined as a function of position in the word, and the order of place of articulation of C1 and C2. The predictions were borne out: more overlap was allowed in positions where recoverability of C1 is less easily compromised (word-internally and in front-to-back sequences). Similar recoverability requirements are proposed to account for consonant sequencing phenomena violating sonority. Georgian syllable onsets violate sonority, but are apparently sensitive to gestural recoverability requirements as reflected in overlap patterns. We propose that sonority sequencing allows gestures to overlap while still allowing recoverability, but this function can apparently be filled in other ways.3
International audienceWe argue that the glides [j,w] are not just non-nuclear versions of vowels, but also bear a subsegmental difference, which we propose is due to a feature [±vocalic]. This representational difference is integrated into an explanation of why glides may be skipped in vowel harmony, even when other consonants do participate in harmony. In addition, we propose that the glides [j,w] have two Designated Articulators: [j] is both [Dorsal] and [Coronal], and [w] is both [Dorsal] and [Labial]. These representational proposals shed light on a number of phenomena, such as why the glide [j] becomes [k] in some languages, but [Image ] in others, as well as why the glide [w] can sometimes become [m]. In short, glides are mentally represented as neither vowels nor consonants, have their own constriction degree, and have two Designated Articulators. The interaction of the logic of abstract binary featural representations together with representational notions such as constrastivity and representational simplification yields this typology of variable patterning
This study compares two diphthongs ([ea], [oa]) and two glide-vowel sequences ([ja], [wa]) in Romanian. The diphthongs and the sequences are auditorily very similar, but they differ in their phonological patterning. An integrated production and perception experiment is conducted in search of perceptual and acoustic evidence for the different phonological representations proposed for the diphthongs and the sequences. Four acoustic parameters of the diphthongs and sequences are measured and compared in a production study. In addition, a perception experiment tests native speakers' ability to correctly identify the two types of vocalic sequences. The results support the different representations proposed for [ea] vs. [ja], but not necessarily for [oa] vs. [wa]. This asymmetry is interpreted in the context of language-specific frequency differences, and of contrast maintenance. The study shows that detailed phonetic description is needed for a complete understanding of the phonological facts.
Romance languages show hiatus and diphthongal realisations of inherited iV sequences of rising sonority (e.g. ia). We study five Romance varieties with different degrees of contrast between the two realisation types: Romanian, with a diphthong-hiatus contrast, Spanish, with a weaker contrast, French, with no contrast (all diphthongs), and European and Brazilian Portuguese, with no contrast (all hiatus). We show that the different degrees of synchronic contrast are related to three independent factors : (i) a general articulatory tendency for [iV] hiatus to resolve to diphthongs, due to the relative stability of diphthongal articulations ; (ii) a structural ' attractor ' effect of pre-existing [jV] diphthongs in a language, from different historical sources ; and (iii) prosodic lengthening effects which inhibit the shift from hiatus to diphthong, supported by phonetic studies of durational patterns across the five languages.
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