Aina Espinosa

Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/ : evidence from two Catalan dialects

Electropalatographic and acoustic data reported in this study show differences in closure location and degree, dorsopalatal contact size, closure duration, relative timing of events and formant frequency between clear /l/ and dark /l/ in two dialects of Catalan (Valencian and Majorcan). The two Catalan dialects under investigation differ also regarding degree of darkness but essentially not regarding coarticulatory resistance at the word edges, i.e. the alveolar lateral is equally dark word-initially and word-finally in Majorcan, and clearer in the former position vs. than the latter in Valencian, and more resistant to vowel effects in the two positions than intervocalically in both dialects. With reference to data from the literature, it appears that languages and dialects may differ as to whether /l/ is dark or clear in all word positions or whether or not initial /l/ is clearer than final /l/, and that articulatory strengthening occurs not only word- and utterance-initially but word- and utterance-finally as well. These and other considerations confirm the hypothesis that degree of darkness in /l/ proceeds gradually rather than categorically from one language to another.

An articulatory investigation of lingual coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness for consonants and vowels in Catalan.

Lingual movement data for Catalan vowel-consonant-vowel sequences reveal differences in contextual coarticulatory variability in tongue position at the middle of the consonant for p>/n/>dark/l/>/s/>> and at vowel midpoint for /u/>/a/>/i/. The velar stop /k/ exhibits a high degree of contextual variability in the horizontal dimension but not in the vertical dimension. These differences in coarticulatory sensitivity are attributed to differences in articulatory constraint, e.g., palatality and frication cause a higher degree of resistance in the consonant than laterality. A higher degree of contextual variability for dark /l/ than expected appears to be associated with speaker-dependent differences in darkness degree. Contextual variability is greater at regions not involved in closure or constriction formation, e.g., at the tongue dorsum than at the tongue front for alveolars. Coarticulatory resistance and coarticulatory aggressiveness are positively correlated: Phonetic segments, which are especially resistant to coarticulatory effects from the adjacent segments, exert maximal coarticulation on them. Consequently, highly constrained segments such as alveolopalatal consonants turn out to affect tongue position for less constrained segments such as back vowels rather than vice versa.

Dispersion and variability of Catalan vowels

Formant frequency data for Catalan vowels reveal essentially the same degree of expansion for three dialect systems with seven vowels (Valencian, Eastern Catalan, Western Catalan). A slightly larger vowel space dispersion for a fourth system with those same vowels and stressed /c/ (Majorcan) is not clearly associated with a larger vowel system size but rather with a local effect of schwa in repelling neighbouring vowels or with specific requirements on the production of some peripheral vowels. Schwa appears to be targetless or specified for a widely defined mid central target. Intervocalic distances were found to vary according to dialect and to vowel pair, and to compensate with each other such that the maximal formant frequency range between point vowels is kept constant across dialects. These findings are partially in support of the Adaptive Dispersion Theory, i.e., they are in agreement with the claim that vowel system expansion should be proportional to vowel system size but not with the notion that adjacent vowels should be evenly spaced in identical vowel systems. Patterns of vowel variability differ depending on the contextual or non-contextual factors involved, i.e., F1 shows more contextual and token-to-token variation for open vs. close vowels, while F2 exhibits little contextual variation and much token-dependent variation for /i/ and the opposite trend for /u/ and /c/. These patterns are accounted for assuming that random variability for vowels is ruled by the precision involved in achieving a specific articulatory target, and that contextual variability is determined by the vowel articulatory requirements and by the relative compatibility between the articulatory gestures for adjacent vowels and consonants. � 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Articulatory, positional and contextual characteristics of palatal consonants: Evidence from Majorcan Catalan

Abstract Linguopalatal contact data for Majorcan Catalan reveal that the palatal consonants [c] (oral), [ɲ] (nasal) and [ʎ] (lateral) may exhibit two places of articulation, i.e., alveolopalatal and palatal proper, depending not only on vowel context but on position and speaker as well. In this Catalan dialect, [ɲ] and [ʎ] have phonological status while [c] is an allophone of /k/ and is articulated at a fronter location than front /k/ in languages such as English. Several consonant-dependent differences appear to be of universal validity, i.e., a trend for [ɲ] and [ʎ] to exhibit a more anterior closure location than [c] (perhaps due to manner requirements) or else for [c] and [ɲ] to share a similar place of articulation (presumably for the sake of articulatory economy), and more stability for closures formed at the alveolopalatal zone than at the mediopalate. The three palatal consonants exhibit more overall contact, fronting and duration but also more coarticulation utterance initially than utterance finally (and even intervocalically) thus suggesting that they may blend with the adjacent vowel rather than resisting its influence in the former position while failing to undergo substantial articulatory reduction in the latter.

An electropalatographic and acoustic study of affricates and fricatives in two Catalan dialects

The present study is an electropalatographic and acoustic investigation of the fricatives /s, S/ and the affricates /ts, dz, tf, d3/ based on data from five speakers of Majorcan Catalan and five speakers of Valencian Catalan. Results show that the articulatory characteristics of fricatives and affricates agree in several respects: the sounds traditionally labeled /∫/ and /tf, d3/ are alveolopalatal, and are articulated at a less anterior location, are less constricted and show more dorsopalatal contact than the alveolars /s/ and /ts, dz/; the two place categories are closer to each other in Valencian than in Majorcan. Compared to voiceless affricates, voiced affricates are more anterior and more constricted, and show less dorsopalatal contact. Data also show that closure location for /t∫, d 3 / occurs at the alveolar zone, and that articulatory differences among affricates are better specified at frication than at closure. Strict homorganicity between the stop and frication components of affricates appears to hold provided that constriction location at frication is compared with place of articulation at closure offset. In comparison to voiceless affricates, voiced affricates were shorter, and exhibited a longer closure and a shorter frication period, in Majorcan; in Valencian, on the other hand, closures were shortest for /d 3 /, and frication was systematically longer for voiceless vs, voiced affricates. These duration data appear to conform to a universal trend in Valencian but not in Majorcan where voiced affricates are lengthened intentionally. In both Catalan dialects, vowel duration varies inversely with the duration of the affricate and of its closure and frication components. The implications of these articulatory and duration characteristics for the interpretation of sound changes affecting affricates, i.e. place merging, lenition and devoicing, are discussed.

Dispersion and variability in Catalan five and six peripheral vowel systems

This study compares F1 and F2 for the vowels of the five and six peripheral vowel systems of four minor dialects of Catalan (Felanitxer, Gironi, Sitgeta, Rossellones), with those of the seven peripheral vowel systems of the major dialects those minor dialects belong to (Majorcan, Eastern). Results indicate that most mid vowel pairs subjected to neutralization may be characterized as near-mergers. Merging appears to have proceeded through two stages: in the first place, one of the two mid vowel pairs undergoes neutralization yielding a relatively close mid vowel in the resulting six vowel system; then, the members of the second vowel pair approach each other until they cease to be contrastive, and the front and back mid vowels of the resulting five vowel system tend to occupy a fairly equidistant position with respect to the mid high and mid low cognates. Moreover, in six vowel systems with a single mid vowel pair, the contrasting members of this pair approach each other if belonging to the back series but not if belonging to the front series. These findings are in support of two hypotheses: vowel systems tend to be symmetrical; reparation of six vowel systems is most prone to occur if the system is unoptimal. Predictions of the adaptive dispersion theory were not supported by the data. Thus, smaller vowel systems turned out not to be less disperse than larger ones, and mid vowels were not clearly more variable in five or six vowel systems than in seven vowel systems. It appears that for these predictions to come into play, the systems being compared need to differ considerably in number of vowels.

Phonetic Typology and Positional Allophones for Alveolar Rhotics in Catalan

The present study reports electropalatographic and acoustic data on the positional and contextual characteristics of alveolar taps and trills in Majorcan, Valencian and Eastern Catalan. The two consonant classes are invariably opposed by degree of tongue dorsum contact and F2, but only differentiated by place of articulation when constriction location for the trill is sufficiently retracted. Trills are produced with less than three contacts and may exhibit a single contact in utterance-initial position and, less often, in /Cr, VrV/ sequences. Word-final and, to a lesser extent, preconsonantal rhotics are implemented as taps in Majorcan and Valencian, and strengthened into trills in Eastern Catalan. Moreover, there appears to be an inverse relationship between initial strengthening, and intervocalic weakening and the absence of syllable-final strengthening, for Valencian rhotics, which could be indicative of a pattern of intersegmental organization. Shortening and articulatory reduction turned out not to be necessarily related for extremely short Valencian taps, which undergo much undershoot intervocalically but are highly constricted in /Cɾ , rC/ sequences. Other research aspects such as devoicing and intergestural timing for Catalan alveolar rhotics are also investigated.

Acoustics and perception of velar softening for unaspirated stops

Abstract This paper provides articulatory, acoustic and perceptual data in support of the hypothesis that the velar softening process through which /k/ becomes /tʃ/ is based on articulation rather than on acoustic equivalence if operating on unaspirated stops. Production data for unaspirated /k/ are analyzed for five speakers of Majorcan Catalan, where the velar stop phoneme exhibits (alveolo)palatal or velar allophones depending on vowel context and position. Data on several parameters, i.e., contact anteriority and dorsopalatal contact degree, burst spectral peak frequency, energy and duration, and F2 and F3 vowel transition endpoints and ranges, suggest that /tʃ/ may have originated from (alveolo)palatal stop realizations not only before front vocalic segments but also before low and central vowels and word finally. Perception results are consistent with the production data in indicating that the most significant /tʃ/ perception cues are burst energy before /a, u/ and burst duration word/utterance finally. They also suggest that velar softening for unaspirated /k/ before front vocalic segments is triggered by an increase in burst frication energy and duration resulting from the narrowing of an (alveolo)palatal central channel occurring at stop closure release. These findings are in agreement with the existence of contextual and positional (alveolo)palatal stop allophones of /k/, and with evidence from sound change, in the Romance languages.

Lingual kinematics and coarticulation for alveolopalatal and velar consonants in Catalan

Vertical lingual movement data for the alveolopalatal consonants /ʃ/ and /ɲ/ and for the dorsovelar consonant /k/ in Catalan /aCa/ sequences produced by three speakers reveal that the tongue body travels a smaller distance at a slower speed and in a longer time during the lowering period extending from the consonant into the following vowel (CV) than during the rising period extending from the preceding vowel into the consonant (VC). For two speakers, two-phase trajectories characterized by two successive velocity peaks occur more frequently during the former period than during the latter, whether associated with tongue blade and dorsum (for alveolopalatals) or with the tongue dorsum articulator alone (for velars). Greater tongue dorsum involvement for /ɲ/ and /k/ than for /ʃ/ accounts for a different kinematic relationship between the four articulatory phases. The lingual gesture for alveolopalatals and, less so, that for velars may exert more prominent spatial and temporal effects on V2 than on V1 which is in agreement with the salience of the C-to-V carryover component associated with these consonants according to previous coarticulation studies. These kinematic and coarticulation data may be attributed to tongue dorsum biomechanics to a large extent.

The role of the spectral and temporal cues in consonantal vocalization and glide insertion.

This study investigates the perceptual role of several acoustic characteristics to glide generation processes affecting the consonants [t], [beta] and [eta], i.e., the vocalization of syllable-final [t] and syllable-initial [beta] into [w], and the insertion of [j] before syllable-final [eta]. Results from identification tests with synthetic speech stimuli performed on Catalan-speaking informants reveal that both the formant frequency characteristics (at the consonant steady-state period for [t] and [beta], and at the endpoint of the vowel transitions for [eta]), and the onset or onset/offset time of the vowel transitions may play an active role in vocalization and glide insertion. Mostly for the changes [t] > [w] and [eta]> [jeta], glide identification was triggered by formant frequency variations rather than by variations in the temporal implementation of the vowel transitions. The implications of the perception results for the interpretation of the sound changes of interest are evaluated.