Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Abstract

Using electroglottography and acoustic measures, we characterize the strength and quality of voicing in voiced aspirated and unaspirated consonants (stops, fricatives, and approximants) in Yemba (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon). We show that the Yemba voiced aspirates exhibit mixed voicing: modal voicing during the consonant constriction, but voiceless aspiration after release. Breathy or whispery phonation extends slightly into consonant constrictions preceding, and across the entire duration of vowels following, aspiration; this non-modal phonation extends further into prenasalized consonants. Mixed voicing has typically been excluded from the possible range of laryngeal–supralaryngeal coordinative patterns in consonants, and is thought to be unattested in the world’s languages; most previous work on this topic assumes that non-modal phonation after voiced consonant release is breathy-voiced. However, we argue that Yemba voiced aspirates differ from more commonly studied breathy-release aspirates only in the settings of some gestural parameters: the late glottal spread gesture is larger in magnitude and more resistant to coarticulation, yielding consistently devoiced aspiration which may even be more perceptually recoverable compared to breathiness.