A preliminary acoustic analysis of vowels and obstruents in San Juan Quiahije Chatino

Abstract

San Juan Quiahije (SJQ) Chatino is a language of the Zapotecan branch of the Otomanguean family, spoken by approximately 4000 people in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. While acoustic analyses of other varieties of Chatino exist, empirical acoustic data related to the phonetic inventory of SJQ Chatino is slim to nonexistent. As such, the current work presents a preliminary investigation of the stop consonants and vowels of SJQ Chatino. Data are from one female native speaker of SJQ and include words produced in isolation as well as in running speech. F1 and F2 values are used to plot the five oral and four nasal vowels of SJQ. With regard to the consonant inventory, contrastive voicing has been lost in at least one variety of Chatino and is marginal in a number of other varieties. Our data confirm that SJQ retains the contrast in coronal stops in at least some contexts. Voice onset times are reported, and negative values are found after initial /n/.