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    Phonetic Properties of Oneida Plosives

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    Kh Ïröo
    This document analyzes the phonetic properties of plosives in Oneida, an Iroquoian language. It finds that Oneida plosives can employ the full voice onset time (VOT) scale despite having only one plosive series, with /t/ tending to be more voiced than /k/. Measurements of various phonetic properties like VOT, voicing during closure, and closure duration are provided for different phonetic environments. Additional observations note influences of neighboring sounds and word boundaries on plosive voicing.

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    Phonetic Properties of Oneida Plosives

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    Kh Ïröo
    71 views1 page
    This document analyzes the phonetic properties of plosives in Oneida, an Iroquoian language. It finds that Oneida plosives can employ the full voice onset time (VOT) scale despite having only one plosive series, with /t/ tending to be more voiced than /k/. Measurements of various phonetic properties like VOT, voicing during closure, and closure duration are provided for different phonetic environments. Additional observations note influences of neighboring sounds and word boundaries on plosive voicing.

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    plosives

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    This document analyzes the phonetic properties of plosives in Oneida, an Iroquoian language. It finds that Oneida plosives can employ the full voice onset time (VOT) scale despite having only one plosive series, with /t/ tending to be more voiced than /k/. Measurements of various phonetic properties like VOT, voicing during closure, and closure duration are provided for different phonetic environments. Additional observations note influences of neighboring sounds and word boundaries on plosive voicing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    71 views1 page

    Phonetic Properties of Oneida Plosives

    Uploaded by

    Kh Ïröo
    This document analyzes the phonetic properties of plosives in Oneida, an Iroquoian language. It finds that Oneida plosives can employ the full voice onset time (VOT) scale despite having only one plosive series, with /t/ tending to be more voiced than /k/. Measurements of various phonetic properties like VOT, voicing during closure, and closure duration are provided for different phonetic environments. Additional observations note influences of neighboring sounds and word boundaries on plosive voicing.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 1

    Phonetic Properties of Oneida Plosives

    Tsan Huang ([email protected]), Karin Michelson ([email protected])


    th
    VII Annual Iroquoian Linguistic Workshop, August 2007

    Theoretical background and findings: Phonetic implementation of plosive voicing is said to be constrained by a contrast along the VOT
    dimension (Keating 1984). Oneida has only one series of plosives (i.e. no voicing contrast) and so one might predict that the plosives /t k/
    should be free to employ the whole VOT (voice onset time) scale. This is supported by experimental data, using a Praat (Boersma 2001)
    script1. A second script took measurements of lag VOT, voicing during closure (VDC), closure duration (CD). Median values in the different
    phonetic environments were determined using Excel.

    voiceless unaspirated voiced partially voiced, voiceless aspirated voiceless strongly aspirated
    moderately aspirated
    2
    ## V T(#) V V (#) V, R V(#) T V #V ## 3
    Vh V V (÷) V V hV
    VOT VDC CD VDC VOT VDC CD VDC VOT VDC CD VDC VOT VDC CD VDC VOT VDC CD VDC VOT VDC CD VDC
    /CD /CD /CD /CD /CD /CD
    /k/ 23 n/a n/a n/a 21 n/a 73 n/a 26 52 67 78% 51 71 116 61% 132 32 95 34% 150 n/a 114 n/a
    /t/ 104 n/a n/a n/a 11 n/a 95 n/a 8 68 82 83% 38 43 99 43% 65 47 100 46% 175 n/a 150 n/a
    Measurements in the table are in milliseconds.

    Additional observations:
    (1) VDC/CD % reflects the fact that universally voicing carries over from a vowel into a following consonant; so a consonant that is
    partially voiced may still be considered voiceless if the VDC/CD ratio is relatively low. Note also that to English ears, aspirated plosives
    (those with a relatively long lag VOT) will sound voiceless, since aspiration is a cue for voiceless consonants in English.
    (2) Overall, /t/ is more voiced than /k/.
    (3) Even voiced allophones show a measurable lag VOT.
    (4) The environment V (#)n (which is not in the table) is interesting in that the word boundary makes a difference. In /Vkn/, the /k/ is
    always voiced (84%, VOT =24msec, CD=74msec). In /Vk#n/, the /k/ is less voiced with perceptible aspiration (55.5%, VOT=65msec,
    CD=108msec). In both cases, some examples have a short epenthetic vowel.

    1
    We are grateful to Jenn Cornish and Kevin (Cornish) for writing the scripts. Aelish Hart, Ann Olivo, and Daniel Reynolds initially segmented and tagged the sound
    files. This is a preliminary study based on recordings of 500 Oneida utterances, most of which were repeated twice, by two speakers, Mercy Doxtator and Norma
    Jamieson, whose participation we gratefully acknowledge. The study began as a senior tutorial, supervised by Tsan Huang, for undergraduate students (the three named
    above) to give them the opportunity to gain additional expertise in instrumental acoustic phonetics. The measurements given in the table are for Mercy Doxtator.
    2
    When the vowel that precedes the plosive is /a/ or /o/, the vowel has breathy voice; consequently overall the numbers do not fit well with the more general pattern that
    /t/ is more voiced than /k/.
    3
    In absolute final position after vowels, the plosives show some voicing (carried over from the preceding vowel) while after obstruents, plosives are completely
    unvoiced.
    4
    Eight of the 53 occurrences of /t/ in absolute initial position are voiced, and the measurements for the voiced variants are VOT=11msec, VDC=122msec, CD=138msec,
    and %voice is 89%.

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