PhD Thesis by Hywel Stoakes
Available online at: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/42067
This thesis is an acoustic and physiolo... more Available online at: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/42067
This thesis is an acoustic and physiological phonetic analysis of the consonant system in Bininj Gun-wok (BGW), an Australian language spoken in North Western Arnhem Land.
The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed phonetic description of an Australian language looking at the articulation of intervocalic stops and nasals. This investigation examines a number of phonological contrasts in the language that have not had prior phonetic investigation. The analysis is divided into three experiments, the first two of which focus on differences in length and strength between stop series in BGW. The third experiment examines patterns of coarticulation within nasals. The materials used consist of two corpora with a total of 24 first language speakers of BGW. Corpus I includes five speakers of the Kuninjku variety and Corpus II includes 19 speakers of the Kunwinjku variety, all recorded under field conditions in Western Arnhem Land. Corpus I is made up of acoustic recordings and Corpus II, physiological recordings with associated time-aligned audio.
An important phonological feature of BGW is a two stop series that contrasts for length. The two stops in the series, which are all matched for place of articulation, are phonologically classed as lenis or fortis. The primary focus of this study is to determine the phonetic realisations of these stop categories. The secondary focus of this study is to examines patterns of coarticulation between nasals and stops in BGW, as nasalisation can mask the acoustic cues that are needed to perceive place of articulation.
Earlier cross-linguistic studies have consistently shown that duration is a key difference between stop categories within a language. This is particularly for languages that do not use voicing as a cue to the contrast. In the current study, acoustic analysis is used to measure duration and for analyses of burst characteristics of BGW stops. An articulatory analysis investigates differences in strength and also the prevalence and timing of voicing between the stop series. Findings show that there is a clear durational difference between lenis and fortis stops. Voice onset time differences are dependent on place of articulation rather than reliably signalling between stop categories. In addition there is a clear difference in strength in terms of peak intra-oral pressure.
In the study, medial homorganic articulations are separated into three categories termed lenis, fortis and geminated consonants. These represent short intra-morphemic stops, long intra-morphemic stops and long inter-morphemic stops respectively. Fortis stops and geminates clusters do not differ in terms of duration. There are however measurable differences between them including pressure — pressure measured over time — showing that duration and pressure are independent. The timing of pressure peak is similar for lenis and fortis stops, yet geminates show a delay in the intra-oral pressure peak.
Across languages, anticipatory nasalisation is thought to be under direct control of the speaker. Carry-over nasalisation in contrast has proven to be a result of bio-mechanical inertia. The secondary focus of this thesis is an examination of nasalisation and directionality of nasal assimilation in BGW as well as the durational aspects of nasals in clusters. Aerodynamic results show that the rise of the nasal airflow, in medial nasals, is delayed to be almost coincident with the oral occlusion. The inference is that the velum is closed during the preceding vowel and opens quickly at the onset of the nasal. In a cluster of nasals followed by a stop, the nasal has a greater duration than the stop. In clusters of stops followed by nasals, it is the stop that has the greater duration. This suggests strengthening in a medial position.
The post-tonic medial position is prosodically eminent, as this is where the majority of phonetic contrasts are found for Bininj Gun-wok and Australian languages in general. This investigation into medial consonants in BGW represents the first major phonetic investigation into stop articulation in an Australian language and provides key support for this proposition.
Papers by Hywel Stoakes
English World-Wide, 2020
Descriptions of Australian Aboriginal English list the neutralisation of the Standard English con... more Descriptions of Australian Aboriginal English list the neutralisation of the Standard English contrast between so-called voiced and voiceless stops as one characteristic feature. This paper reports on the results of an acoustic analysis of data collected in a production task by monolingual speakers of Standard Australian English in Sydney, of Aboriginal English on Croker Island, NT, and bilingual speakers of Iwaidja/Aboriginal English and Kunwinjku/Aboriginal English on Croker Island, NT. The result is that average values for Voice Onset Time, the main correlate of the "stop voicing contrast" in English, and Constriction Duration collected from Aboriginal speakers of English do not significantly differ from that of speakers of Standard Australian English, irrespective of language background. This result proves that the stop contrast is not neutralised by these Aboriginal speakers of English. However, it can be shown that phonetic voicing manifesting itself in Voice Termination Time, is a prevalent and characteristic feature of Aboriginal English on Croker Island. This feature aligns Aboriginal English on Croker Island with local Aboriginal languages and differentiates it from Standard Australian English.
Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019, 2019
This paper investigates a merger-in-progress of /e/-/ae/ in prelateral contexts for speakers of A... more This paper investigates a merger-in-progress of /e/-/ae/ in prelateral contexts for speakers of Australian English in Victoria. Twelve participants (7F, 5M) were recorded producing a wordlist resulting in acoustic and concurrent articulatory data via stabilised mid-sagittal ultrasound tongue imaging. Focusing on a subset of the data comprising short front vowels /ɪ, e, ae/ in /hVt/ and /hVl/ contexts, findings show that there are robust acoustic differences between /e/ and /ae/ preceding /t/, as anticipated. However, individual differences emerge for /e/ and /ae/ preceding /l/, with highly gradient production patterns across the speakers, ranging from speakers who exhibit merger behaviour to those who maintain categorical distinctions. The evidence for merging behaviour across speakers is similar, but does not map directly, across both the acoustic and articulatory data, and illustrates the value of incorporating a range of data types in investigating a merger-in-progress.
Nasal phonemes are well represented within the lexicon of Bininj Kunwok. 1 This study examines in... more Nasal phonemes are well represented within the lexicon of Bininj Kunwok. 1 This study examines intervocalic, word medial nasals and reports patterns of coarticulation using a Smoothing Spline Analysis of Variance (SSANOVA). This allows for detailed comparisons of peak nasal airflow across six female speakers of the language. Results show that in a VNV sequence there is very little anticipatory vowel nasalisation and greater carryover into a following vowel. The maximum peak nasal flow is delayed for coronals when compared to the onset of oral closure in the nasal, indicating a delayed velum opening gesture. The velar place of articulation is the exception to this pattern with some limited anticipatory nasalisation. The SSANOVA has shown to be an appropriate technique for quantifying these patterns and dynamic speech data in general.
Rather than using abstract directionals, speakers of the Australian Aboriginal language Murrinhpa... more Rather than using abstract directionals, speakers of the Australian Aboriginal language Murrinhpatha make reference to locations of interest using named landmarks, demonstratives and pointing. Building on a culturally prescribed avoidance for certain placenames, this study reports on the use of demonstratives, pointing and landmarks for direction giving. Whether or not pointing will be used, and which demonstratives will be selected is determined partly by the relative epistemic incline between interlocutors and partly by whether information about a location is being sought or being provided. The reliance on pointing for the representation of spatial vectors requires a construal of language that includes the visuo-corporal modality.
assta.org
Vowel transition duration is often claimed to be one of the important cues to place of articulati... more Vowel transition duration is often claimed to be one of the important cues to place of articulation in nasals. Nasal murmur also differs in duration depending on place of articulation. The duration of nasal murmur and vowel transitions in different VNC and VN sequences were measured in the Kunwinjku variety of Bininj Gun-wok. Bilabial and velar nasals tend to be longer than alveolars and retroflexes in nasal+C clusters. Moreover nasals in clusters are somewhat longer than singleton nasals. Significantly longer vowel transitions are found in alveopalatal and retroflex clusters than in bilabial or alveolar clusters. These results are interpreted in terms of general articulatory constraints as well as a specific constraint that operates in place-rich Australian languages, namely, the need to preserve place of articulation contrasts in VNC contexts.
Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2015
This paper presents an analysis of acoustic duration of vowels in Djambarrpuyŋu, a Yolŋu Matha la... more This paper presents an analysis of acoustic duration of vowels in Djambarrpuyŋu, a Yolŋu Matha language spoken in Arnhem Land, in northern Australia. Djambarrpuyŋu has been described as having phonologically long and short vowels, and there have also been suggestions that consonants following short vowels undergo compensatory lengthening. The aims of this study are to investigate the phonetic nature of phonologically long and short vowels in Djambarrpuyŋu, and assess whether there is any evidence of consonantal lengthening.
Results show that there are significant duration differences between the phonologically long and short vowels, and furthermore that consonants following short vowels have significantly greater duration than those after long vowels.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2011
It has previously shown that there is a clear duration difference between the long and short stop... more It has previously shown that there is a clear duration difference between the long and short stop series in Bininj Gun-Wok, a language spoken in Northern Australia. Previously these have been phonologically labeled lenis and fortis. This investigation looks at some non-durational phonetic correlates of the contrast between lenis and fortis consonants. H1-H2, H1-A2 and H1-A3 measurements were made using acoustic recordings and the closed quotient (CQ) was measured using an electroglottograph. Voice quality was not found to be a consistent cue to a contrast.
Twelfth Annual Conference of the …, Jan 1, 2011
The phonetic correlates of intervocalic stop articulations were investigated in a northern Austra... more The phonetic correlates of intervocalic stop articulations were investigated in a northern Australian Language, Bininj Gun-Wok. Closure duration, VOT, and intra-oral pressure were measured. Results indicate that although the contrast is chiefly cued by duration differences, there are clear differences in intra-oral pressure, suggesting a more complex contrast than one based on duration alone.
It has previously shown that there is a clear duration difference between the long and short stop... more It has previously shown that there is a clear duration difference between the long and short stop series in Bininj Gun-Wok, a language spoken in Northern Australia. Previously these have been phonologically labeled lenis and fortis. This investigation looks at some non-durational phonetic correlates of the contrast between lenis and fortis consonants. H1-H2, H1-A2 and H1-A3 measurements were made using acoustic recordings and the closed quotient (CQ) was measured using an electroglottograph. Voice quality was not found to be a consistent cue to a contrast.
Proc. 16th ICPhS, Jan 1, 2007
In this paper we investigate the spectral properties of vowels in a Northern Australian language,... more In this paper we investigate the spectral properties of vowels in a Northern Australian language, Kunwinjku. The language illustrates typical vowel dispersion patterns of other languages of the region, and of 5-vowel languages in general. The spectral properties of vowels suggest a system of sufficient dispersion, with phonemic close vowels being realized in the close/mid-close region of the vowel space and with a general anchoring of the system by an open central vowel. Vowel height also interacts with vowel segment duration, with open vowels being generally longer than relatively close vowels.
... of Melbourne, Australia 2 Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, Flinders Univer... more ... of Melbourne, Australia 2 Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, Flinders University, Australia [email protected], [email protected] ... This idea is further supported by Flack's analysis of laterals in Australian languages (including Warlpiri) [9], where it was ...
Books by Hywel Stoakes
Conference Presentations by Hywel Stoakes
Stops in Croker Island English: making use of a multilingual repertoire
The phonetics of Aborigi... more Stops in Croker Island English: making use of a multilingual repertoire
The phonetics of Aboriginal English is still under-researched (Eades 2014: 438). Apart from general overviews (see e.g. Butcher 2008; Fletcher & Butcher 2014), studies in which Kriol is the focus (Jones & Meakins 2013) and studies on Kriol only (Baker et al. 2014), instrumental phonetic research on varieties of Aboriginal English appears to be lacking. However, studying the phonetic detail of Aboriginal English is of great significance for mapping out the sociolinguistic variation of English, especially in relation to the linguistic contribution of Indigenous languages. Furthermore, it is relevant to a phenomenology of contact-induced change, due to the synchronic and diachronic complexity of the contact situation. For instance it has been speculated that the influence of Indigenous languages may be the reason that stops in some varieties of Kriol have a longer duration than in Standard Australian English (Baker et al. 2014: 328). Though suggestive, this remains an unproven assumption (see Jones & Meakins 2013: 216-17). Studies of contact-induced change in the area of phonetics and phonology have focused on transfer and convergence effects (e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011), rather than bilingual correspondence-matching and optimisation strategies, despite clear indication for such phenomena (Muysken 2013: 725).
This study investigates two phonetic parameters, Voice Onset Time (VOT) and Constriction Duration (CD), in Aboriginal English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku, in order to answer the following research questions:
1. Does English spoken by Iwaidja and Kunwinjku speakers differ from general non-Aboriginal English and if so how can differences be described and explained?
2. Does English spoken by Iwaidja speakers differ from English spoken by Kunwinjku speakers with respect to these two parameters (see e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011: on the transferability of VOT settings), and if so, how can this be described and explained?
Acoustic data were collected on Croker Island, NT. Eight speakers (2 female, 2 male Iwaidja-English bilinguals, 2 female, 2 male Kunwinjku bilinguals) participated in the study. Suitable target words were elicited in English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku either by written stimuli or by shadowing with stop phonemes in initial, medial and final position embedded in a natural carrier phrase controlling for the phonological environment (target words per condition). Recordings were made with a Countryman EMW microphone using an iPad with iRigPro preamp with a 16-bit sampling depth and a 48kHz sampling rate.
Preliminary results suggest both Iwaidja English and Kunwinjku English make use of CD as well as VOT to mark the phonemic voicing contrast in medial position, although in an asymmetrical way (see Figures 1 and 2): while in both varieties VOT and CD for voiced stops roughly pattern with non-Aboriginal English, CD in voiceless stops is significantly longer than in non-Aboriginal English. VOT and CD of Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English voiced stops matches with the relevant values of stops in Iwaidja and singleton stops in Kunwinjku. The use of a longer CD for voiceless stops in Kunwinjku English can be understood against the background of Kunwinjku: speakers seem to map the main phonetic correlate of the Kunwinjku long vs. short stops onto the voiceless vs. voiced stop contrast in English and use that in addition to VOT. However, this is not a likely explanation for Iwaidja English, as Iwaidja only has a single stop series. In fact, it would be expected that Iwaidja English neutralises the voicing distinction (Butcher 2008: 627). Instead, Iwaidja English differentiates “voiced” and “voiceless” stops also by CD and VOT. We interpret the Kunwinjku and Iwaidja English data as an “optimisation” or enhancement strategy in the sense of Muysken (2013): speakers capitalise on correspondences in all available languages and use them simultaneously. Given that the English voiced stops match the Iwaidja single stop series in terms of CD, we suggest that the phonetically slightly longer VOT of English voiceless stops is exaggerated to provide a sufficient contrast.
Thus, this paper shows that convergence and transfer are inadequate in explaining the CD and VOT measured in Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English. Instead, language-specific strategies are used to find correspondences for phonological contrasts within the languages available.
Figure 1: Medial position constriction duration in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
Figure 2: Medial position VOT in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
References
Antoniou, Mark, Catherine T. Best, Michael D. Tyler & Christian Kroos. 2011. Inter-language interference in VOT production by L2-dominant bilinguals: Asymmetries in phonetic code-switching. Journal of Phonetics 38.558-70.
Baker, Brett, Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen & Simone Graetzer. 2014. The Obstruent Inventory of Roper Kriol. Australian Journal of Linguistics 34.307-44.
Butcher, Andrew. 2008. Linguistic aspects of Australian Aboriginal English. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 22.625-42.
Eades, Diana. 2014. Aboriginal English. The languages and linguistics of Australia: a comprehensive guide, ed. by H. Koch & R. Nordlinger, 417-47. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Fletcher, Janet & Andrew Butcher. 2014. Sound patterns of Australian Languages. The languages and linguistics of Australia: a comprehensive guide, ed. by H. Koch & R. Nordlinger. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Jones, C. & F. Meakins. 2013. Australian Journal of Linguistics 33.196.
Muysken, Pieter. 2013. Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16.709-30.
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PhD Thesis by Hywel Stoakes
This thesis is an acoustic and physiological phonetic analysis of the consonant system in Bininj Gun-wok (BGW), an Australian language spoken in North Western Arnhem Land.
The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed phonetic description of an Australian language looking at the articulation of intervocalic stops and nasals. This investigation examines a number of phonological contrasts in the language that have not had prior phonetic investigation. The analysis is divided into three experiments, the first two of which focus on differences in length and strength between stop series in BGW. The third experiment examines patterns of coarticulation within nasals. The materials used consist of two corpora with a total of 24 first language speakers of BGW. Corpus I includes five speakers of the Kuninjku variety and Corpus II includes 19 speakers of the Kunwinjku variety, all recorded under field conditions in Western Arnhem Land. Corpus I is made up of acoustic recordings and Corpus II, physiological recordings with associated time-aligned audio.
An important phonological feature of BGW is a two stop series that contrasts for length. The two stops in the series, which are all matched for place of articulation, are phonologically classed as lenis or fortis. The primary focus of this study is to determine the phonetic realisations of these stop categories. The secondary focus of this study is to examines patterns of coarticulation between nasals and stops in BGW, as nasalisation can mask the acoustic cues that are needed to perceive place of articulation.
Earlier cross-linguistic studies have consistently shown that duration is a key difference between stop categories within a language. This is particularly for languages that do not use voicing as a cue to the contrast. In the current study, acoustic analysis is used to measure duration and for analyses of burst characteristics of BGW stops. An articulatory analysis investigates differences in strength and also the prevalence and timing of voicing between the stop series. Findings show that there is a clear durational difference between lenis and fortis stops. Voice onset time differences are dependent on place of articulation rather than reliably signalling between stop categories. In addition there is a clear difference in strength in terms of peak intra-oral pressure.
In the study, medial homorganic articulations are separated into three categories termed lenis, fortis and geminated consonants. These represent short intra-morphemic stops, long intra-morphemic stops and long inter-morphemic stops respectively. Fortis stops and geminates clusters do not differ in terms of duration. There are however measurable differences between them including pressure — pressure measured over time — showing that duration and pressure are independent. The timing of pressure peak is similar for lenis and fortis stops, yet geminates show a delay in the intra-oral pressure peak.
Across languages, anticipatory nasalisation is thought to be under direct control of the speaker. Carry-over nasalisation in contrast has proven to be a result of bio-mechanical inertia. The secondary focus of this thesis is an examination of nasalisation and directionality of nasal assimilation in BGW as well as the durational aspects of nasals in clusters. Aerodynamic results show that the rise of the nasal airflow, in medial nasals, is delayed to be almost coincident with the oral occlusion. The inference is that the velum is closed during the preceding vowel and opens quickly at the onset of the nasal. In a cluster of nasals followed by a stop, the nasal has a greater duration than the stop. In clusters of stops followed by nasals, it is the stop that has the greater duration. This suggests strengthening in a medial position.
The post-tonic medial position is prosodically eminent, as this is where the majority of phonetic contrasts are found for Bininj Gun-wok and Australian languages in general. This investigation into medial consonants in BGW represents the first major phonetic investigation into stop articulation in an Australian language and provides key support for this proposition.
Papers by Hywel Stoakes
Results show that there are significant duration differences between the phonologically long and short vowels, and furthermore that consonants following short vowels have significantly greater duration than those after long vowels.
Books by Hywel Stoakes
Conference Presentations by Hywel Stoakes
The phonetics of Aboriginal English is still under-researched (Eades 2014: 438). Apart from general overviews (see e.g. Butcher 2008; Fletcher & Butcher 2014), studies in which Kriol is the focus (Jones & Meakins 2013) and studies on Kriol only (Baker et al. 2014), instrumental phonetic research on varieties of Aboriginal English appears to be lacking. However, studying the phonetic detail of Aboriginal English is of great significance for mapping out the sociolinguistic variation of English, especially in relation to the linguistic contribution of Indigenous languages. Furthermore, it is relevant to a phenomenology of contact-induced change, due to the synchronic and diachronic complexity of the contact situation. For instance it has been speculated that the influence of Indigenous languages may be the reason that stops in some varieties of Kriol have a longer duration than in Standard Australian English (Baker et al. 2014: 328). Though suggestive, this remains an unproven assumption (see Jones & Meakins 2013: 216-17). Studies of contact-induced change in the area of phonetics and phonology have focused on transfer and convergence effects (e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011), rather than bilingual correspondence-matching and optimisation strategies, despite clear indication for such phenomena (Muysken 2013: 725).
This study investigates two phonetic parameters, Voice Onset Time (VOT) and Constriction Duration (CD), in Aboriginal English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku, in order to answer the following research questions:
1. Does English spoken by Iwaidja and Kunwinjku speakers differ from general non-Aboriginal English and if so how can differences be described and explained?
2. Does English spoken by Iwaidja speakers differ from English spoken by Kunwinjku speakers with respect to these two parameters (see e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011: on the transferability of VOT settings), and if so, how can this be described and explained?
Acoustic data were collected on Croker Island, NT. Eight speakers (2 female, 2 male Iwaidja-English bilinguals, 2 female, 2 male Kunwinjku bilinguals) participated in the study. Suitable target words were elicited in English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku either by written stimuli or by shadowing with stop phonemes in initial, medial and final position embedded in a natural carrier phrase controlling for the phonological environment (target words per condition). Recordings were made with a Countryman EMW microphone using an iPad with iRigPro preamp with a 16-bit sampling depth and a 48kHz sampling rate.
Preliminary results suggest both Iwaidja English and Kunwinjku English make use of CD as well as VOT to mark the phonemic voicing contrast in medial position, although in an asymmetrical way (see Figures 1 and 2): while in both varieties VOT and CD for voiced stops roughly pattern with non-Aboriginal English, CD in voiceless stops is significantly longer than in non-Aboriginal English. VOT and CD of Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English voiced stops matches with the relevant values of stops in Iwaidja and singleton stops in Kunwinjku. The use of a longer CD for voiceless stops in Kunwinjku English can be understood against the background of Kunwinjku: speakers seem to map the main phonetic correlate of the Kunwinjku long vs. short stops onto the voiceless vs. voiced stop contrast in English and use that in addition to VOT. However, this is not a likely explanation for Iwaidja English, as Iwaidja only has a single stop series. In fact, it would be expected that Iwaidja English neutralises the voicing distinction (Butcher 2008: 627). Instead, Iwaidja English differentiates “voiced” and “voiceless” stops also by CD and VOT. We interpret the Kunwinjku and Iwaidja English data as an “optimisation” or enhancement strategy in the sense of Muysken (2013): speakers capitalise on correspondences in all available languages and use them simultaneously. Given that the English voiced stops match the Iwaidja single stop series in terms of CD, we suggest that the phonetically slightly longer VOT of English voiceless stops is exaggerated to provide a sufficient contrast.
Thus, this paper shows that convergence and transfer are inadequate in explaining the CD and VOT measured in Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English. Instead, language-specific strategies are used to find correspondences for phonological contrasts within the languages available.
Figure 1: Medial position constriction duration in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
Figure 2: Medial position VOT in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
References
Antoniou, Mark, Catherine T. Best, Michael D. Tyler & Christian Kroos. 2011. Inter-language interference in VOT production by L2-dominant bilinguals: Asymmetries in phonetic code-switching. Journal of Phonetics 38.558-70.
Baker, Brett, Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen & Simone Graetzer. 2014. The Obstruent Inventory of Roper Kriol. Australian Journal of Linguistics 34.307-44.
Butcher, Andrew. 2008. Linguistic aspects of Australian Aboriginal English. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 22.625-42.
Eades, Diana. 2014. Aboriginal English. The languages and linguistics of Australia: a comprehensive guide, ed. by H. Koch & R. Nordlinger, 417-47. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Fletcher, Janet & Andrew Butcher. 2014. Sound patterns of Australian Languages. The languages and linguistics of Australia: a comprehensive guide, ed. by H. Koch & R. Nordlinger. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Jones, C. & F. Meakins. 2013. Australian Journal of Linguistics 33.196.
Muysken, Pieter. 2013. Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16.709-30.
This thesis is an acoustic and physiological phonetic analysis of the consonant system in Bininj Gun-wok (BGW), an Australian language spoken in North Western Arnhem Land.
The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed phonetic description of an Australian language looking at the articulation of intervocalic stops and nasals. This investigation examines a number of phonological contrasts in the language that have not had prior phonetic investigation. The analysis is divided into three experiments, the first two of which focus on differences in length and strength between stop series in BGW. The third experiment examines patterns of coarticulation within nasals. The materials used consist of two corpora with a total of 24 first language speakers of BGW. Corpus I includes five speakers of the Kuninjku variety and Corpus II includes 19 speakers of the Kunwinjku variety, all recorded under field conditions in Western Arnhem Land. Corpus I is made up of acoustic recordings and Corpus II, physiological recordings with associated time-aligned audio.
An important phonological feature of BGW is a two stop series that contrasts for length. The two stops in the series, which are all matched for place of articulation, are phonologically classed as lenis or fortis. The primary focus of this study is to determine the phonetic realisations of these stop categories. The secondary focus of this study is to examines patterns of coarticulation between nasals and stops in BGW, as nasalisation can mask the acoustic cues that are needed to perceive place of articulation.
Earlier cross-linguistic studies have consistently shown that duration is a key difference between stop categories within a language. This is particularly for languages that do not use voicing as a cue to the contrast. In the current study, acoustic analysis is used to measure duration and for analyses of burst characteristics of BGW stops. An articulatory analysis investigates differences in strength and also the prevalence and timing of voicing between the stop series. Findings show that there is a clear durational difference between lenis and fortis stops. Voice onset time differences are dependent on place of articulation rather than reliably signalling between stop categories. In addition there is a clear difference in strength in terms of peak intra-oral pressure.
In the study, medial homorganic articulations are separated into three categories termed lenis, fortis and geminated consonants. These represent short intra-morphemic stops, long intra-morphemic stops and long inter-morphemic stops respectively. Fortis stops and geminates clusters do not differ in terms of duration. There are however measurable differences between them including pressure — pressure measured over time — showing that duration and pressure are independent. The timing of pressure peak is similar for lenis and fortis stops, yet geminates show a delay in the intra-oral pressure peak.
Across languages, anticipatory nasalisation is thought to be under direct control of the speaker. Carry-over nasalisation in contrast has proven to be a result of bio-mechanical inertia. The secondary focus of this thesis is an examination of nasalisation and directionality of nasal assimilation in BGW as well as the durational aspects of nasals in clusters. Aerodynamic results show that the rise of the nasal airflow, in medial nasals, is delayed to be almost coincident with the oral occlusion. The inference is that the velum is closed during the preceding vowel and opens quickly at the onset of the nasal. In a cluster of nasals followed by a stop, the nasal has a greater duration than the stop. In clusters of stops followed by nasals, it is the stop that has the greater duration. This suggests strengthening in a medial position.
The post-tonic medial position is prosodically eminent, as this is where the majority of phonetic contrasts are found for Bininj Gun-wok and Australian languages in general. This investigation into medial consonants in BGW represents the first major phonetic investigation into stop articulation in an Australian language and provides key support for this proposition.
Results show that there are significant duration differences between the phonologically long and short vowels, and furthermore that consonants following short vowels have significantly greater duration than those after long vowels.
The phonetics of Aboriginal English is still under-researched (Eades 2014: 438). Apart from general overviews (see e.g. Butcher 2008; Fletcher & Butcher 2014), studies in which Kriol is the focus (Jones & Meakins 2013) and studies on Kriol only (Baker et al. 2014), instrumental phonetic research on varieties of Aboriginal English appears to be lacking. However, studying the phonetic detail of Aboriginal English is of great significance for mapping out the sociolinguistic variation of English, especially in relation to the linguistic contribution of Indigenous languages. Furthermore, it is relevant to a phenomenology of contact-induced change, due to the synchronic and diachronic complexity of the contact situation. For instance it has been speculated that the influence of Indigenous languages may be the reason that stops in some varieties of Kriol have a longer duration than in Standard Australian English (Baker et al. 2014: 328). Though suggestive, this remains an unproven assumption (see Jones & Meakins 2013: 216-17). Studies of contact-induced change in the area of phonetics and phonology have focused on transfer and convergence effects (e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011), rather than bilingual correspondence-matching and optimisation strategies, despite clear indication for such phenomena (Muysken 2013: 725).
This study investigates two phonetic parameters, Voice Onset Time (VOT) and Constriction Duration (CD), in Aboriginal English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku, in order to answer the following research questions:
1. Does English spoken by Iwaidja and Kunwinjku speakers differ from general non-Aboriginal English and if so how can differences be described and explained?
2. Does English spoken by Iwaidja speakers differ from English spoken by Kunwinjku speakers with respect to these two parameters (see e.g. Antoniou et al. 2011: on the transferability of VOT settings), and if so, how can this be described and explained?
Acoustic data were collected on Croker Island, NT. Eight speakers (2 female, 2 male Iwaidja-English bilinguals, 2 female, 2 male Kunwinjku bilinguals) participated in the study. Suitable target words were elicited in English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku either by written stimuli or by shadowing with stop phonemes in initial, medial and final position embedded in a natural carrier phrase controlling for the phonological environment (target words per condition). Recordings were made with a Countryman EMW microphone using an iPad with iRigPro preamp with a 16-bit sampling depth and a 48kHz sampling rate.
Preliminary results suggest both Iwaidja English and Kunwinjku English make use of CD as well as VOT to mark the phonemic voicing contrast in medial position, although in an asymmetrical way (see Figures 1 and 2): while in both varieties VOT and CD for voiced stops roughly pattern with non-Aboriginal English, CD in voiceless stops is significantly longer than in non-Aboriginal English. VOT and CD of Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English voiced stops matches with the relevant values of stops in Iwaidja and singleton stops in Kunwinjku. The use of a longer CD for voiceless stops in Kunwinjku English can be understood against the background of Kunwinjku: speakers seem to map the main phonetic correlate of the Kunwinjku long vs. short stops onto the voiceless vs. voiced stop contrast in English and use that in addition to VOT. However, this is not a likely explanation for Iwaidja English, as Iwaidja only has a single stop series. In fact, it would be expected that Iwaidja English neutralises the voicing distinction (Butcher 2008: 627). Instead, Iwaidja English differentiates “voiced” and “voiceless” stops also by CD and VOT. We interpret the Kunwinjku and Iwaidja English data as an “optimisation” or enhancement strategy in the sense of Muysken (2013): speakers capitalise on correspondences in all available languages and use them simultaneously. Given that the English voiced stops match the Iwaidja single stop series in terms of CD, we suggest that the phonetically slightly longer VOT of English voiceless stops is exaggerated to provide a sufficient contrast.
Thus, this paper shows that convergence and transfer are inadequate in explaining the CD and VOT measured in Iwaidja and Kunwinjku English. Instead, language-specific strategies are used to find correspondences for phonological contrasts within the languages available.
Figure 1: Medial position constriction duration in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
Figure 2: Medial position VOT in Iwaidja English, Kunwinjku English, Iwaidja and Kunwinjku (IPA symbols refer to phonetic features rather than phonemes)
References
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