Bert Botma

Nivkh palatalisation: articulatory causes and perceptual effects

Nivkh, a linguistic isolate of Eastern Siberia, displays a typologically uncommon process which affects /e/ in the context of a following uvular consonant, and which reportedly results in palatalisation of the consonant preceding /e/, e.g. /pʰeq/→[pʰʲ q]. Phonologically, there are indeed reasonable grounds for analysing the consonants as palatalised. Phonetically, matters are less clear. Acoustic evidence shows that the clearest correlate of palatalisation is a steep and consistent fall of F2 during the realisation of the vowel. The fact that F2 lowering is also typical before uvulars suggests that palatalisation is the result of a perceptually motivated reanalysis, whereby the palatality of /e/ has come to be associated with the preceding consonant, and the vowel has a lowered and retracted reflex.

English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction (Second Edition)

The second edition of Philip Carrs English Phonetics and Phonology provides a short and accessible introduction to these two fields, aimed specifically at undergraduate students of English languag...