Acoustic correlates of the four-way laryngeal contrast in Marathi stops

Abstract

As many of its geographical and typological neighbors, Marathi demonstrates a four-way laryngeal contrast in stop consonants, which includes plain voiced and voiceless stops as well as aspirated voiceless stops and typologically rare aspirated (breathy) voiced stops. The present study investigates the acoustic correlates of the laryngeal contrast in word-initial velar stops in Marathi. Thirty three native speakers of Marathi were recorded in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Positive and negative Voice Onset Time (VOT), fundamental frequency at the onset of voicing (onset f0), and spectral intensity as a measure of breathiness during the following vowel were investigated as correlates of laryngeal distinctions. Preliminary results show that all four stop categories are well-distinguished via VOT and onset f0 measures. Initial spectral intensity measurements suggest that breathiness in Marathi stops is largely contained in the release and does not extend far into the following vowel, unlike what has been found in Hindi (Dutta, 2007). The results will be discussed with respect to the typology of voicing contrast across languages, specifically the relevance of VOT distinctions and the use of onset f0, and compared to relevant findings for typologically similar languages.