Alexei Kochetov

Phonetic variability and grammatical knowledge: an articulatory study of Korean place assimilation

The study reported here uses articulatory data to investigate Korean place assimilation of coronal stops followed by labial or velar stops, both within words and across words. The results show that this place-assimilation process is highly variable, both within and across speakers, and is also sensitive to factors such as the place of articulation of the following consonant, the presence of a word boundary and, to some extent, speech rate. Gestures affected by the process are generally reduced categorically (deleted), while sporadic gradient reduction of gestures is also observed. We further compare the results for coronals to our previous findings on the assimilation of labials, discussing implications of the results for grammatical models of phonological/phonetic competence. The results suggest that speakers’ language-particular knowledge of place assimilation has to be relatively detailed and context-sensitive, and has to encode systematic regularities about its obligatory/variable application as well as categorical/gradient realisation.

Coronal place contrasts in Argentine and Cuban Spanish: An electropalatographic study

Theoretical and descriptive work on Spanish phonetics and phonology has been largely based on Peninsular varieties. This study uses electropalatography (EPG) to investigate articulatory characteristics of coronal consonant contrasts in Argentine and Cuban Spanish. Simultaneous EPG and acoustic data were collected from five speakers from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and three speakers from Havana (Cuba) reading sentences with various syllable-initial coronal consonants corresponding to the orthographic 〈t, ch, n, n, s, z, ll, y, l, r〉. As a control, the same data were collected from a single speaker of Peninsular Spanish from Madrid. As expected, the main distinction in both varieties was made between anterior and posterior coronal consonants ((denti-)alveolars vs. (alveolo-)palatals) and reflected the historical merger of the sounds represented by 〈s–z〉 and 〈ll–y〉. At the same time, the results revealed some consistent differences between the two varieties in the location of the constriction and the amount of linguopalatal contact for most coronal consonants. First, the coronal consonants produced by the Argentine speakers were overall considerably more fronted and more constricted than the corresponding consonants produced by the Cuban speakers. Second, 〈ll, y〉 were produced as a fronted alveolo-palatal fricative by the Argentine speakers, and as an approximant by the Cuban speakers. Inter-speaker variation was observed within the varieties in the articulation of some consonants, namely in the Argentine alveolo-palatal fricative and nasal (〈ll, y〉 and 〈n〉), and the Cuban alveolo-palatal affricate 〈ch〉.

Japanese mimetic palatalisation revisited : implications for conflicting directionality*

This article re-examines ‘conflicting directionality’ in Japanese mimetic words, a distributional pattern in which palatalisation is preferentially realised on the rightmost of two coronal consonants, but on the leftmost consonant in a word without coronals. Analysis of the original dictionary evidence given in support of this generalisation and an exhaustive search of the Japanese mimetic stratum reveal both several counterexamples to conflicting directionality and the fact that the datasets are far too small to support linguistic generalisation. The theoretical assumptions employed to account for Japanese mimetic palatalisation are thus re-examined, with a focus on clarifying the predictions for future valid examples of conflicting directionality.

Spatial and dynamic aspects of retroflex production: An ultrasound and EMA study of Kannada geminate stops

Abstract This study investigates the production of geminate retroflex stops in Kannada using a combination of ultrasound and articulography. Data obtained from 10 native speakers of the language show that the retroflex gesture is dynamically complex and asymmetrical, involving an anticipatory retraction of the tongue tip, followed by the raising of this articulator towards the hard palate, and subsequent rapid flapping-out movement during the closure and the release. The retroflex constriction and the forward movement appear to be facilitated by the simultaneous fronting of the posterior tongue body, flattening of the anterior tongue body, and lowering of the jaw. Compared to dental and velar stops, retroflex stops exert extensive anticipatory and perseverative coarticulatory effects on adjacent vowels and inter-speech intervals. With respect to the magnitude of the tongue tip displacement, the anticipatory effects are greater than perseverative effects. The results of the study thus offer a multi-faceted view of spatial and dynamic aspects of retroflex stop production in Kannada, confirming and extending previous findings for other Dravidian languages. The results also provide support for general models of lingual consonant production and coarticulation.

Place assimilation and phonetic grounding : a cross-linguistic perceptual study

This paper investigates predictions made by the ‘phonetic knowledge hypothesis’ (Jun 1995 , 2004 , Hayes & Steriade 2004 ) about the relation between perceptibility of stops and common patterns of major place assimilation. In two perceptual experiments, stimuli with Russian released and unreleased voiceless stops in clusters were presented for identification of 56 listeners, native speakers of Russian, Canadian English, Korean and Taiwanese Mandarin. Percentages of correct responses and reaction time data were used to determine scales of perceptual salience. Results reveal considerable perceptual differences between places of articulation, consistent across four language groups. Perceptual salience of place of articulation was strongly affected by presence or absence of stop releases. While the salience scale for released stops closely corresponded to cross-linguistic patterns of assimilation, the scale for unreleased stops did not. The results provide partial support for the hypothesis, while suggesting a less direct relation between scales of phonetic difficulty and phonological markedness.

Examination of the grooving patterns of the Czech trill-fricative

Abstract The Czech trill-fricative, /r/, is typologically rare among the worlds languages. The present study used electromagnetic articulography (EMA) to examine the cross-sectional morphology during the production of the trill-fricative /r/ compared to the plain trill /r/ and sibilant fricatives /ʃ, ʒ, s, z/. Data collected from 5 native speakers of Czech show that the coronal shape of the tongue for the trill-fricative is flat, similar to that of the plain apical trill and the post-alveolar fricatives, but different from the highly grooved alveolar fricatives. However, toward the tip of the tongue, the trill-fricative is somewhat more grooved than the posterior region. This may help facilitate frication during trilling. The results also indirectly suggest that lateral tongue bracing is important for the articulation of trills. Furthermore, contrary to some previous descriptions in the literature, /r/ is more similar to post-alveolars than alveolars, and exhibits /ʒ/-like articulatory characteristics.

A preliminary ultrasound study of Nepali lingual articulations

Previous descriptive and phonetic works on Nepali provided conflicting accounts of place contrasts in coronal consonants. Specifically, apical stops were characterized as either retroflex or alveolar, while laminal affricates were described as either alveolar or palatal. Some of these works used static palatography, which shows the contact between the tongue and the palate, but provides no information about the tongue shape for a given consonant or its dynamic properties. In this study we used ultrasound to image tongue shapes for various Nepali lingual consonants produced by a single native speaker of Brahmin dialect. The results showed that the speaker’s apical stops were produced with a substantially raised tongue front and retracted tongue tip, as would be expected of retroflex articulations. Laminal affricates had the tongue shape similar to dental stops, yet with a somewhat retracted tongue tip, indicative of the alveolar constriction. Apicals that differed in laryngeal features (voiceless, voiced, ...

Articulatory characteristics of coronal consonants in Argentine Spanish: An electropalatographic study.

Previous articulatory investigations of Spanish have been largely limited to its Peninsular varieties. This study uses electropalatography (EPG) to investigate articulatory characteristics of coronal consonant contrasts in Argentine Spanish as part of a larger project examining phonetic variation across Spanish dialects. Simultaneous EPG and acoustic data were collected from four female speakers of Buenos Aires Spanish reading sentences with various intervocalic coronal consonants. Results revealed consistent differences in terms of anterior/posterior tongue placement and the amount of linguopalatal contact with the primary distinction between (denti‐)alveolar and post‐alveolar articulations within the classes of stops/affricates, fricatives, nasals, and laterals/rhotics. Inter‐speaker variation was observed, however, in the articulation of some consonants, namely, in the apical or laminal realization of the post‐alveolar fricative and in the palatal or palatalized alveolar realization of the post‐alveolar nasal. These findings diverge from those reported for Peninsular Spanish [A. M. Fernandez Planas, Estudios de fonetica experimental, 16, 11–80 (2007)], revealing some dialectal differences in the degree of fronting of denti‐alveolars. Additionally, results suggest a sound change in progress in Argentine Spanish, such as the depalatalization of the palatal nasal. [Work supported by Connaught, University of Toronto.]

Supralaryngeal implementation of length and laryngeal contrasts in Japanese and Korean

This article investigates supralaryngeal characteristics of Japanese and Korean length and laryngeal contrasts in stops and affricates. Electropalatography data collected from five Japanese and five Korean speakers revealed similar differences among the consonants in the degree of linguopalatal contact and duration of the closure. Japanese (voiceless) geminate and Korean fortis obstruents were most constricted and had the longest duration (although considerably longer in Japanese). Japanese voiced and Korean lenis obstruents were least constricted and had the shortest duration. Japanese voiceless (singleton) and Korean aspirated obstruents showed intermediate degree of contact and duration. Both stops and affricates showed a positive correlation between degree of contact and duration. The results show that the two very different sets of phonological contrasts are implemented similarly at the supralaryngeal level. These cross-language similarities and cross-category differences are proposed to result from the application of independently-motivated phonetic enhancement rules to distinct phonological representations of laryngeal/length contrasts in the two languages.Résumé:Cet article explore des propriétés supralaryngées de la durée en japonais et coréen et les contrastes laryngés des obstruantes et des affriquées. Les données recueillies par l’électropalatographie auprès de cinq locuteurs du japonais et cinq locuteurs du coréen révèlent des différences similaires parmi les consonnes concernant le degré de contact linguopalatal et la durée de la fermeture. Les géminées (non-voisées) du japonais et les obstruantes fortis du coréen présentent le plus de constriction et les durées les plus longues (la durée était sensiblement plus longue en japonais). Les obstruantes voisées du japonais et les obstruantes lenis du coréen présentent le moins de constriction et les durées les plus courtes. Les obstruantes non voisées (simples) du japonais et les obstruantes aspirées du coréen présentent des degrés intermédiaires de contact et de durée. Il existe une corrélation positive entre le degré de contact et la durée pour les obstruantes et les affriquées. Les résultats montrent que ces deux contrastes phonologiques distincts sont réalisés phonétiquement de façon similaire au niveau supralaryngé. Nous proposons que ces similarités interlinguistiques et ces différences intercatégorielles résultent de règles d’amélioration phonétique (indépendamment motivées) appliquées à des représentations phonologiques distinctes de contrastes laryngés/de durée dans les deux langues.

Acoustics of Russian voiceless sibilant fricatives

This study investigated acoustic properties of the four-way contrast in Russian voiceless sibilant fricatives (/s s j ʂ ʃ j /). Words with these consonants, occurring in a variety of phonetic contexts, were elicited from 10 Russian native speakers. Measurements were made of duration, centre of gravity (COG) and intensity of fricative noise, as well as of formants F1–F3 during the following vowel. The results revealed that the anterior vs. posterior contrast was clearly distinguished by COG throughout the frication period, and to a lesser degree by noise intensity. The palatalized vs. non-palatalized contrast was distinguished by F1 and (especially) F2 at the onset, the midpoint, and, in some cases, at the offset of the following vowel. The four-way contrast was thus well categorized by a combination of COG and F2–F1 differences. Fricative duration only marginally distinguished /ʃj/, commonly described as geminate, from the other consonants. Clear durational differences, however, were observed for the same consonants in different positional and stress contexts. Overall, the results of the study provide a systematic documentation of the typologically uncommon fricative contrast, while also shedding light on some facts of synchronic patterning and historical development of the fricative system of Russian.