Guttural vowels and guttural co-articulation in Ju∣’hoansi

Abstract

Ju|'hoansi contains parallel glottalization, breathiness and epiglottalization on consonants and vowels, as well as uvularization on consonants. There are voice quality cues associated with epiglottalized vowels that parallel those found with breathy and glottalized vowels. There is also guttural coarticulation, whereby aspirated, glottalized, uvularized and epiglottalized consonants spread acoustic voice quality cues onto a following vowel. The laryngeal coarticulation exhibited by click consonants is shown to be largely analogous to coarticulation found with pulmonic consonants. Two levels of acoustic similarity involving gutturals are identified. Low HNR in the C-V transition unites all gutturals, and low spectral slope differentiates glottals and epiglottals from aspirates and uvularized sounds that are associated with high spectral slopes. The two natural classes identified by these cues are shown to be targeted in perceptuallymotivated sound patterns. In addition to the four-way phonation type contrast on vowels, there are also diphthongs in breathiness and epiglottalization, leading to a three-way timing contrast in roots. Sufficient temporal separation of voice quality cues is not achieved between roots containing similar guttural consonants and guttural vowels. Phonotactic patterns assure that similar consonants and vowels do not co-occur within a single root, allowing Voice Onset Time to assure sufficient discriminibility of roots containing guttural consonants and roots containing guttural vowels. This suggests that sound inventories can not be evaluated for discriminability in isolation of existing cooccurrence patterns. * I would like to thank Mary Beckman for her help in designing, implementing and analyzing the results of the experiments reported on here, which were originally included in my dissertation under her direction (Miller-Ockhuizen 2001). I would also like to thank Abby Cohn, Osamu Fujimura, Bonny Sands, Marisol del Teso-Craviotto, and members of my seminar on the acoustics of voice quality taught at Cornell in the spring of 2002 (Marc Brunelle, Rina Kreitman and Anastasia Riehl) for comments on a draft version of this paper.

The acoustic consequences of phonation and tone interactions in Jalapa Mazatec

“…Because the phonation contrast is strongest in the first third of vowels, the analyses that follow are limited to that time interval. However, the results for CPP are in keeping with Miller (2007), who found that Harmonics-to-noise ratios can capture the acoustic SIMILARITY of non-modal phonation types, rather than their differences. Linear mixed-effects models were run to determine the main effects and interactions of various predictors like phonation, sex, tone, and aspiration on the four acoustic measures.…”

“…in Gobl & N ⁄ ı Chasaide 1999), English (Löfqvist & McGowan 1992, Garellek 2010, White Hmong (Garellek 2010), Korean (Cho, Jun & Ladefoged 2002, Garellek 2010, Navajo, Tagalog (Blankenship 1997), and Ju|'hoansi (Miller-Ockhuizen 2003, Miller 2007. Such laryngeal coarticulation has been shown in a number of languages, including Swedish, French, German, Italian (e.g.…”

“…This could help explain why, in languages with both these features, aspirated stops cannot be followed by breathy voice, as in Mazatec (Silverman et al 1995) and Hmong (Fulop & Golston 2008, Esposito & Khan 2010, by modal voice, as in Gujarati (Esposito & Khan 2010), or by any non-modal phonation, as in Ju|'hoansi (Miller-Ockhuizen 2003, Miller 2007. This could help explain why, in languages with both these features, aspirated stops cannot be followed by breathy voice, as in Mazatec (Silverman et al 1995) and Hmong (Fulop & Golston 2008, Esposito & Khan 2010, by modal voice, as in Gujarati (Esposito & Khan 2010), or by any non-modal phonation, as in Ju|'hoansi (Miller-Ockhuizen 2003, Miller 2007.…”

“…A language with three phonation contrasts not included in Gordon & Ladefoged (2001) is Ekoka !Xung (König & Heine 2001). Languages with more than three contrastive phonation types are of course very rare, and none are mentioned by Gordon & Ladefoged (2001), but they include languages with four phonation type contrasts such as Bor Dinka (Edmondson & Esling 2006), and Ju|'hoansi (Miller 2007). Finally, !X ⁄ oõ (Traill 1985) has been described as having five phonation type contrasts: breathy, modal, glottalized, pharyngealized, and strident.…”

Harsh Voice Quality and Its Association with Blackness in Popular American Media

“…Traill [1986] claimed that the so-called sphincteric phonation in !Xóõ is produced by vibration of the epilaryngeal structures; similarly, the 'raucous' and 'deep' pharyngeals of Agul [Catford, 1983, p. 347] probably involve epilaryngeal vibration, as Esling [1999, p. 364] suggests. Miller [2007] and Miller et al [2009] posit an AE phonatory mechanism for distinctive 'epiglottalized' vowels in Ju|'hoansi and N|uu. The vocal style of the Jing role in Chinese Opera ostensibly epilaryngeal vibration, which would account for its growled quality [Tsai et al, 2010].…”