Lexical stress and stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara: Feature enhancement of neutralized apicals and the coronal/velar contrast

Tabain, Marija; Butcher, Andrew

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2015.02.004

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…Spectral moments capture gross characteristics of the spectrum as may be encoded by the human auditory system (Forrest et al, 1988). However, as should be clear from the discussion of the Tabain and Butcher (2015a) Pitjantjatjara study in the Introduction section, spectral tilt, centre of gravity, and skewness simply patterned together as regards stress effects on burst spectra, and kurtosis did not prove especially useful. For this reason and for the sake of economy given the larger number of languages here, we choose to present only the first two spectral moments in the present study.…”

Section: Stimuli and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study, we examined the effect of lexical stress on the spectral and temporal properties of stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara (Tabain & Butcher, 2015a). We found various effects of stress on stop burst duration, and on spectral properties of the stop burst (i.e., on spectral moments and on spectral tilt).…”

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, the effects of lexical stress which we describe here are clearest for the central vowel context, and are either less clear or non-existent for the /i/ and /u/ vowel contexts in Pitjantjatjarafor instance, there are no significant differences between the apicals in the /u/ vowel context. For extra detail, the reader is referred to Tabain & Butcher, 2015a, 2015b. (as seen in Figure 1 of Tabain & Butcher, 2015a).…”

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For extra detail, the reader is referred to Tabain & Butcher, 2015a, 2015b. (as seen in Figure 1 of Tabain & Butcher, 2015a). These subtle but consistent effects are reflected in spectral tilt, spectral centre of gravity, and spectral skewness measures, such that the retroflex has a lower spectral tilt and centre of gravity (and higher skewness) than the alveolar, while the neutralized but stressed /T/ has a higher spectral tilt and centre of gravity (and lower skewness) than both the unstressed retroflex and the unstressed alveolar.…”

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Makasar recordings were used for Tabain and Jukes (2016). The Pitjantjatjara recordings were used for , 2015a, 2015b and Tabain, Fletcher, and Butcher (2014). The English recordings were used for Tabain, Breen, and Butcher (2004), as was one of the Arrernte recordings.…”

Section: Stimuli and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stress Effects on Stop Bursts in Five Languages

Tabain¹,

Breen

Butcher

et al. 2016

Laboratory Phonology

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This study examines the effects of stress on the stop burst in five languages differing in number of places of articulation, as reflected in burst duration, spectral centre of gravity, and spectral standard deviation. The languages studied are English (three places of articulation /p t k/), the Indonesian language Makasar (four places /p t c k/), and the Central Australian languages Pitjantjatjara, Warlpiri (both five places /p t ʈ c k/), and Arrernte (six places /p t̪ t ʈ c k/). We find that languages differ in how they manifest stress on the consonant, with Makasar not showing any effect of stress at all, and Warlpiri showing an effect on burst duration, but not on the spectral measures. For the other languages, the velar /k/ has a "darker" quality (i.e., lower spectral centre of gravity), and/or a less diffuse spectrum (i.e., lower standard deviation) under stress; while the alveolar /t/ has a "lighter" quality under stress. In addition, the dental /t̪ / has a more diffuse spectrum under stress. We suggest that this involves enhancement of the features [grave] and [diffuse] under stress, with velars being [+grave] and [-diffuse], alveolars being [-grave], and dentals being [+diffuse]. We discuss the various possible spectral effects of enhancement of these features. Finally, in the languages with five or six places of articulation, the stop burst is longer only for the palatal /c/ and the velar /k/, which have intrinsically long burst durations, and not for the anterior coronals /t̪ t ʈ/, which have intrinsically short burst durations. We suggest that in these systems, [burst duration] is a feature that separates these two groups of consonants.

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Section: Stimuli and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Articulatory Prosody and The Role Of Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stimuli and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Stress Effects on Stop Bursts in Five Languages

Tabain¹,

Breen

Butcher

et al. 2016

Laboratory Phonology

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Production and perception of stop voicing in Central Australian Aboriginal English: A cross-generational study

Wang,

O’Shannessy,

Davis

et al. 2024

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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Consonantal timing and release burst acoustics distinguish multiple coronal stop place distinctions in Wubuy (Australia)

Bundgaard‐Nielsen

Kroos

Baker

et al. 2016

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Substantial research has established that place of articulation of stop consonants (labial, alveolar, velar) are reliably differentiated using a number of acoustic measures such as closure duration, voice onset time (VOT), and spectral measures such as centre of gravity and the relative energy distribution in the mid-to-high spectral range of the burst. It is unclear, however, whether such measurable acoustic differences are present in multiple place of articulation contrasts among coronal stops. This article presents evidence from the highly endangered indigenous Australian language Wubuy, which maintains a 4-way coronal stop place contrast series in all word positions. The authors examine the temporal and burst characteristics of / t̪ t ʈ/ in three prosodic positions (utterance-initial, word-initial but phrase medial, and word-medial). The results indicate that VOT, closure duration, and the spectral quality of the burst may indeed differentiate multiple coronal place contrasts, in most positions, although measures that distinguish the apical contrast in absolute initial position remain elusive. The authors also examine measures (spectrum kurtosis, spectral tilt) previously used in other studies of multiple coronals in Australian languages. These results suggest that the authors' measures perform at least as well as those previously applied to multiple coronals in other Australian languages.

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Lexical stress and stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara: Feature enhancement of neutralized apicals and the coronal/velar contrast

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Stress Effects on Stop Bursts in Five Languages

Stress Effects on Stop Bursts in Five Languages

Production and perception of stop voicing in Central Australian Aboriginal English: A cross-generational study

Consonantal timing and release burst acoustics distinguish multiple coronal stop place distinctions in Wubuy (Australia)

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