Results of an acoustic study of voiceless fricatives in seven languages are presented. Three measurements were taken: duration, center of gravity, and overall spectral shape. In addition, formant transitions from adjacent vowels were measured for a subset of the fricatives in certain languages. Fricatives were well differentiated in terms of overall spectral shape and their coarticulation effects on formant transitions for adjacent vowels. The center of gravity measurement also proved useful in differentiating certain fricatives. Duration generally was less useful in differentiating the fricatives. In general, results were consistent across speakers and languages, with lateral fricatives displaying the greatest interspeaker variation in their acoustic properties and /s/ providing the greatest source of interspeaker variation.

This work presents results of an acoustic study of fricatives in 7 languages (Aleut, Chickasaw, Hupa, Montana Salish, Scottish Gaelic, Toda, and Western Apache), all of which contrast fricatives made at several places of articulation. Measurements of the frequency of spectral peaks and centroid frequencies indicate many similarities between the languages in the acoustic properties defining the fricatives. Some of the principal findings are the following. Alveolar sibilants typically have the highest spectral peak and centroid frequency. Lateral and palatoalveolar fricatives have spectral peaks and centroids intermediate in frequency between alveolar sibilants and backer fricatives. Among the back fricatives, peaks and centroids of uvulars are characteristically lower than those of velars. Rounding of back fricatives induces further lowering of peaks and/or centroids. Contrasts in backness and rounding among the back fricatives are also associated with differences in F2 of the following vowels: F2 values are lower following uvulars than velars, and lower following rounded than unrounded fricatives. Labiodental fricatives typically have flat spectra with poorly defined spectral peaks. Finally, the contrast between lateral fricatives and palatoalveolar sibilants is variably realized, depending on language and speaker, as a difference in the location of spectral peaks and/or centroid frequency.

Okanagan, a Southern Interior Salish language spoken in northern Washington state and southern British Columbia, exhibits a peculiar set of pronominal morphemes that surely are a testament to a diverse and varied history. From the outside, the pronominal markers associated with Okanagan clauses appear to be a disparate group of morphemes. A lack of formal similarity frustrates attempts to characterize them as either nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive. Morphologically the pronominal forms appear to be the typologically rare tripartite system. Yet, speakers have little trouble using the different markers in their appropriate contexts. In what follows, I will propose an analysis of how the person marking in the language has come to have such an interesting shape. I will offer internal and external motivations that the system responded to as it evolved into its current form.