Dagaare [a] is not neutral to ATR harmony

Abstract

Bodomo (1997) describes Dagaare (Gur; Ghana) as having a single low vowel, [a], which is neutral to ATR harmony. This paper presents acoustic data from a study of Dagaare <a> which is inconsistent with this description. A list of sentences was elicited from five native speakers of Dagaare. Each sentence contained <a> in one of four verbal particles situated in one of four contexts: ATR _ ATR, ATR _ RTR, RTR _ ATR, and RTR _ RTR. Formants of the low vowel were measured and compared across contexts. Results showed a substantial, significant difference in F1 values and a smaller but still significant difference in F2 values in contexts where <a> is followed by an ATR word compared to when it is followed by an RTR word. All speakers and all particles showed the same pattern. We conclude that, contrary to previous claims, the Dagaare low vowel is not neutral to harmony, but rather has acoustically distinct variants in RTR versus ATR contexts. Bodomo, A. (1997). The structure of Dagaare. California: CSLI publications. [Funded by SSHRC.]

Perception of ATR contrasts by Akan speakers: a case of perceptual near-merger

“…The Ozburn et al (2022) study on Dàgáárè also found that the ATR+Height pair [ɪ ~ e] was poorly discriminated, at least compared to [e ~ ɛ], in keeping with the overlap in the acoustic space of that pair, and similar to our results. However, discrimination was not significantly different for [i ~ɪ] compared to either of the other two pairs.…”

“…A recent study (Ozburn, Giovio Canavesi, & Akinbo, 2022) examines perception of ATR distinctions in Dàgáárè, a Mabia language of Ghana, and is the only other study besides the current one to test perception with a large number of speakers (over 20) of a language with ATR contrasts. Stimuli were kV and kVkV nonce words using front vowels [i ɪ e ɛ] in an ABX task.…”

“…Hall, Letawsky, Turner, Allen, and McMullin (2015) found that phonemic fricatives in contexts where only one of the sounds is highly likely to occur are perceived as more similar than the same sounds in contexts where either is likely to occur. With respect to ATR, in some languages the high vowels are acoustically similar in the F1/F2 vowel space (e.g., Ikposo (Starwalt, 2008), Masaai (Quinn-Wriedt, 2013), Lopit (Billington, 2017) except for the results of the Degema perceptual study (Fulop et al, 1998) and the Dàgáárè study (Ozburn et al, 2022), and anecdotal reports in Omamor (1988) and Koffi (2018). Koffi (2018) reports that Anyi speakers confused /e/ and /ɪ/ in literacy training.…”

Dàgáárè (Central)

“…While previous studies (e.g. Bodomo 1997) report that Dàgáárè has nine contrastive vowels, a recent acoustic study (Ozburn et al 2018) suggests that Central Dàgáárè has a tenth vowel. The tenth vowel is reported to be /´/, which is an [ATR] (advanced tongue root) counterpart of the [RTR] (retracted tongue root) vowel /a/.…”

“…Using Kernel density estimation, the contour plot in Figure 3 shows the distribution of the two low vowels within the vowel space based on the acoustic study by Ozburn et al (2018). The results of the research in Lloy et al (2019) also suggest that the tenth vowel is (partially) contrastive.…”