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 / 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.
References
1.
Anderson
, V. B.
(2000
). “Giving weight to phonetic principles: The case of place of articulation in Western Arrernte
,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California
, Los Angeles, CA
.2.
Anderson
, V. B.
, and Maddieson
, I.
(1994
). “Acoustic characteristics of Tiwi coronal stops
,” UCLA Work. Papers Phonetics
87
, 131
–162
.3.
Baker
, B.
, Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, and Graetzer
, S.
(2014
). “The obstruent inventory of Roper Kriol
,” Australian J. Ling.
34
(3
), 307
–344
.4.
Baker
, B. J.
(2008a
). Word Structure in Ngalakgan
(CSLI Publications
, Stanford, CA
), Chap. 2
, pp. 37
–47
.5.
Baker
, B. J.
(2008b
). “The interpretation of complex nominal expressions in Southeast Arnhem Land languages
,” in Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages
, edited by I.
Mushin
and B. J.
Baker
(Benjamins
, Philadelphia/Amsterdam
), pp. 135
–166
.6.
Best
, C. T.
, Kroos
, C.
, Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, Baker
, B.
, Harvey
, M.
, Tiede
, M.
, and Goldstein
, L.
(2014
). “Articulatory basis of the apical/laminal distinction: Tongue tip/body coordination in the Wubuy 4-way coronal stop contrast
,” in Proceedings of the International Seminar on Speech Production
, Cologne, Germany
.7.
Blumstein
, S. E.
, and Stevens
, K. N.
(1979
). “Acoustic invariance in speech production: Evidence from measurements of the spectral characteristics of stop consonants
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
66
, 1001
–1017
.8.
Boersma
, P.
, and Weenink
, D.
(2007
). “Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]
,” (Version 5.1.05), http://www.praat.org/ (Last viewed January 1, 2014).9.
Bonneau
, A.
, Djezzar
, L.
, and Laprie
, Y.
(1996
). “Perception of the place of articulation of French stop bursts
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
100
, 555
–564
.11.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R.
, Baker
, B.
, Maxwell
, O.
, and Fletcher
, J.
(2015b
). “Wubuy coronal stop perception by speakers of three dialects of Bangla
,” in Proceedings of Interspeech 2015
, Dresden, Germany
.12.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, and Baker
, B. J.
(2016
). “Fact or Furphy? The Continuum in Kriol
,” in Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages since Contact
, edited by F.
Meakins
and C.
O'Shannessy
(Mouton de Gruyter
, Berlin, Germany)
, pp. 177
–216
.13.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, Baker
, B. J.
, Harvey
, M.
, Best
, C. T.
, and Kroos.
C.
(2012a
). “The perception of coronal stops in Wubuy
,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
.14.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, Baker
, B. J.
, Kroos
, C.
, Best
, C. T.
, and Harvey
, M.
(2015a
). “Native speech perception isn't perfect: Discrimination of multiple coronal stop contrasts in Wubuy (Australia)
,” PloS One
10
(12
), e0142054
.15.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, Kroos
, C.
, Harvey
, M.
, Baker
, B.
, and Best
, C. T.
(2012b
). “Vowel acoustics reliably differentiate three coronal stops of Wubuy across prosodic contexts
,” Lab. Phon.
3
(1
), 133
–162
.16.
Bundgaard-Nielsen
, R. L.
, Kroos
, C.
, Harvey
, M.
, Best
, C. T.
, Baker
, B.
, and Goldstein
, L.
(2010
). “A kinematic analysis of temporal differentiation of the four-way coronal stop contrast in Wubuy (Australia)
,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
.17.
Butcher
, A. R.
(1995
). “The phonetics of neutralisation: The case of Australian coronals
,” in Studies in General and English Phonetics. Essays in Honour of Professor J. D. O'Connor
, edited by J.
Windsor Lewis
(Routledge
, London)
, pp. 10
–38
.18.
Butcher
, A. R.
(2004
). “ ‘Fortis/lenis’ revisited one more time: The aerodynamics of some oral stop contrasts in three continents
,” Clin. Ling. Phon.
18
, 547
–557
.19.
Butcher
, A. R.
(2006
). “Australian Aboriginal languages: Consonant-salient phonologies and the ‘place-of-articulation imperative’
,” in Speech Production: Models, Phonetic Processes and Techniques
, edited by J. M.
Harrington
and M.
Tabain
(Psychology Press
, New York)
, pp. 187
–210
.20.
Butcher
, A. R.
(2012
). “On the phonetics of long, thin phonologies: The expression and maintenance of distinctive features in the place-rich, manner-poor consonant systems of Australian languages
,” in Quantitative Approaches to Problems in Linguistics. Studies in Honour of Phil Rose
, edited by C.
Donohue
, S.
Ishihara
, and W.
Steed
(Lincom Europa
, Munich
), p. 133
–154
.21.
Cho
, T.
(2008
). “Prosodic strengthening in transboundary V-to-V lingual movement in American English
,” Phonetica
65
, 45
–61
.22.
Cho
, T.
, and Keating
, P.
(2001
). “Articulatory and acoustic studies of domain-initial strengthening in Korean
,” J. Phonetics
29
, 155
–190
.23.
Cho
, T.
, and Ladefoged
, P.
(1999
). “Variations and universals in VOT: Evidence from 18 languages
,” J. Phonetics
27
, 207
–229
.24.
Cho
, T.
, and McQueen
, J.
(2005
). “Prosodic influences on consonant production in Dutch: Effects of prosodic boundaries, phrasal accent and lexical stress
,” J. Phonetics
33
, 121
–157
.25.
Choi
, H.
(2003
). “Prosody induced acoustic variation in English stop consonants
,” in Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Phonetic Science
, Barcelona, Spain
.26.
Cole
, J.
, Kim
, H.
, Choi
, H.
, and Hasegawa-Johnson
, M.
(2007
). “Prosodic effects on acoustic cues to stop voicing and place of articulation: Evidence from radio news speech
,” J. Phonetics
35
, 180
–209
.27.
Dart
, S. N.
, and Nihalani
, P.
(1999
). “The articulation of Malayalam coronal stops and nasals
,” J. Int. Phon. Assoc.
29
(2
), 129
–142
.28.
Delattre
, P. C.
, Liberman
, A. M.
, and Cooper
, F. S.
(1955
). “Acoustic loci and transitional cues for consonants
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
27
, 769
–773
.29.
Dorman
, M.
, and Loizou
, P.
(1996
). “Improving consonant intelligibility for Ineraid patients fit with Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS) processors by enhancing contrast among channel outputs
,” Ear Hear.
17
, 308
–313
.30.
Fletcher
, J.
, and Butcher
, A.
(2014
). “Sound patterns of Australian languages
,” in The Languages and Linguistics of Australia
(The World of Linguistics, Vol. 3
), edited by H.
Koch
and R.
Nordlinger
(Mouton de Gruyter
, Berlin, Germany)
, pp. 91
–138
.31.
Forrest
, K.
, Weismer
, G.
, Milenkovic
, P.
, and Dougall
, R.
(1988
). “Statistical analysis of word-initial voiceless obstruents: Preliminary data
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
84
, 115
–123
.32.
Fougeron
, C.
(2001
). “Articulatory properties of initial segments in several prosodic constituents in French
,” J. Phonetics
29
, 109
–135
.33.
Fougeron
, C.
, and Keating
, P. A.
(1997
). “Articulatory strengthening at edges of prosodic domains
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
101
, 3728
–3740
.34.
35.
Gordon
, M.
, Potter
, B.
, Dawson
, J.
, De Reuse
, W.
, and Ladefoged
, P.
(2001
). “Phonetic structures of Western Apache
,” Int. J. Am. Ling.
67
(4
), 415
–448
.36.
Hamilton
, P.
(1996
). “Phonetic constraints and markedness in the phonotactics of Australian Aboriginal languages
,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto
, Canada
, pp. 75
–78
.37.
Hasegawa-Johnson
, M. A.
(1996
). “Formant and burst spectral measurements with quantitative error models for speech sound classification
,” Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Cambridge, MA
, p. 106.38.
Heath
, J.
(1984
). Functional Grammar of Nunggubuyu
(Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies
, Canberra, Australia
), p. 12
.39.
Heath
, J.
(1986
). “Syntactic and lexical aspects of nonconfigurationality in Nunggubuyu (Australia)
,” Nat. Lang. Ling. Theory
4
, 375
–408
.40.
Henderson
, J.
(1998
). “Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte
,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Western Australia
, Perth, Australia
, Chap. 3
, pp. 88
–116
.41.
Hussain
, Q.
, and Yuen
, I.
(2014
). “Acoustic differentiation between coda retroflex and dental stops in Punjabi
,” Proc. Lab. Phon.
54
, 54
.42.
Jongman
, A.
, Blumstein
, S. E.
, and Lahiri
, A.
(1985
). “Acoustic properties for dental and alveolar stop consonants-a cross-language study
,” J. Phon.
13
(2
), 235
–251
.43.
Klatt
, D.
(1975
). “Voice onset time, frication and aspiration in word-initial clusters
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
18
, 686
–705
.44.
Ladefoged
, P.
(2001
). Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages
(Blackwell
, Oxford
), pp. 158
–160
.45.
Ladefoged
, P.
, and Maddieson
, I.
(1996
). The sounds of the World's Languages
(Blackwell
, Oxford
), p. 30
.46.
Lisker
, L.
, and Abramson
, A. S.
(1964
). “A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements
,” Word
20
(3
), 384
–422
.47.
Luce
, P. A.
, and Charles-Luce
, J.
(1985
). “Contextual effects on vowel duration, closure duration, and the vowel/consonant ratio in speech production
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
78
, 1949
–1957
.48.
Maddieson
, I.
(1997
). “Phonetic universals
,” in The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences
, edited by W.
Hardcastle
and J.
Laver
(Blackwell
, Oxford)
, pp. 619
–639
.49.
Pickett
, J. M.
, Bunnell
, T.
, and Revoile
, S. G.
(1995
). “Phonetics of intervocalic consonant perception: Retrospect and prospect
,” Phonetica
52
(1
), 1
–40
.50.
Pierrehumbert
, J.
, and D.
Talkin.
(1992
). “Lenition of /h/ and glottal stop
,” in Papers in Laboratory Phonology II
(Cambridge University Press
, Cambridge, United Kingdom
), pp. 90
–117
.51.
Shalev
, M.
, Ladefoged
, P.
, and Bhaskararao
, P.
(1993
). “Phonetics of Toda
,” UCLA Work. Papers Phonetics
84
, 89
–123
.52.
Smits
, R.
, Ten Bosch
, L.
, and Collier
, R.
(1996
). “Evaluation of various sets of acoustical cues for the perception of prevocalic stop consonants: 1. Perception experiment
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
100
, 3852
–3864
.53.
Steriade
, D.
(2001
). “Directional asymmetries in place assimilation: A perceptual account
,” in The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology
, edited by E.
Hume
and K.
Johnson
(Academic Press
, San Diego, CA)
, pp. 219
–250
.54.
Stevens
, K. S.
, Manuel
, S.
, and Matthies
, M.
(1999
). “Revisiting place of articulation measures for stop consonants: Implications for models of consonant production
,” in Proceedings of the International Congress on Phonetic Sciences
.55.
Suchato
, A.
(2004
). “Classification of stop consonant place of articulation
,” Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Cambridge, MA
), pp. 93
–96
.56.
Suchato
, A.
, and Punyabukkana
, P.
(2005
). “Factors in classification of stop consonant place of articulation
,” in Proc. Interspeech
, pp. 2969
–2972
.57.
Švec
, J.
, and Granqvist
, S.
(2010
). “Guidelines for selecting microphones for human voice production research
,” Am. J. Speech-Lang. Pathol.
19
(4
), 356
–368
.58.
Tabain
, M.
(2012
). “Jaw movement and coronal stop spectra in Central Arrernte
,” J. Phonetics
40
, 551
–567
.59.
Tabain
, M.
, and Beare
, R.
(2011
). “A spectral analysis of stops bursts in Pitjantjatjara
,” in Proceedings of the International Congress on Phonetic Sciences
.60.
Tabain
, M.
, and Butcher
, A.
(1999
). “Stop consonants in Yanyuwa and Yindjibarndi: Locus equation data
,” J. Phonetics
27
, 333
–357
.61.
Tabain
, M.
, and Butcher
, A.
(2015a
). “Stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara
,” J. Int. Phon. Assoc.
45
(2
), 149
–176
.62.
Tabain
, M.
, and Butcher
, A.
(2015b
). “Lexical stress and stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara: Feature enhancement of neutralized apicals and the coronal/velar contrast
,” J. Phon.
50
, 67
–80
.63.
Turk
, A.
, and White
, L.
(1999
). “Structural influences on accentual lengthening in English
,” J. Phonetics
27
, 171
–206
.64.
Winitz
, H.
, Scheib
, M. E.
, and Reeds
, J. A.
(1972
). “Identification of stops and vowels for the burst portion of /p,t,k/ isolated from conversational speech
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
51
, 1309
–1317
.© 2016 Acoustical Society of America.
2016
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.