Acoustic Correlates of the Four-Way Laryngeal Contrast in Marathi

Abstract

The study examines acoustic correlates of the four-way laryngeal contrast in Marathi, focusing on temporal parameters, voice quality, and onset f0. Acoustic correlates of the laryngeal contrast were investigated in the speech of 33 native speakers of Marathi, recorded in Mumbai, India, producing a word list containing six sets of words minimally contrastive in terms of laryngeal specification of word-initial velar stops. Measurements were made for the duration of prevoicing, release, and voicing during release. Fundamental frequency was measured at the onset of voicing following the stop and at 10 additional time points. As measures of voice quality, amplitude differences between the first and second harmonic (H1-H2) and between the first harmonic and the third formant (H1-A3) were calculated. The results demonstrated that laryngeal categories in Marathi are differentiated based on temporal measures, voice quality, and onset f0, although differences in each dimension were unequal in magnitude across different pairs of stop categories. We conclude that a single acoustic correlate, such as voice onset time, is insufficient to differentiate among all the laryngeal categories in languages such as Marathi, characterized by complex four-way laryngeal contrasts. Instead, a joint contribution of several acoustic correlates creates a robust multidimensional contrast.with a fourway laryngeal contrast for stop consonants (Simple UPSID interface). The World Phonotactics Database indicates a similar proportion: 74 languages or 1.9% of the database (Donohue et al., 2013).

Fundamental Frequency and Phonation Differences in the Production of Stop Laryngeal Contrasts of Endangered Shina

“…Voiceless aspirated stops were characterized by the highest H1*-H2*, H1*-A1*, H1*-A2*, and H1*-A3* onsets compared to other two laryngeal categories. These results are in line with other languages of the world where aspirated stops have been shown as having a higher spectral tilt at the onset of the following vowels than unaspirated stops (Shanghai Chinese: Gao et al 2020;Yerevan Armenian: Seyfarth and Garellek 2018;Dzongkha: Kirby and Hyslop 2019;Hindi/Urdu: Schertz and Khan 2020;Gujarati: Esposito et al 2020;Marathi: Berkson 2019;Dmitrieva and Dutta 2020). Raising of the spectral tilt due to aspiration appears to be a universal correlate.…”

“…3 Some studies have also observed the effect of aspiration on F0 onsets but there appears to be inconsistency in the reported results. Voiceless unaspirated stops of Burushaski (Hussain 2021), Cantonese, Mandarin (Luo et al 2016), Kalasha (Hussain and Mielke 2020), Marathi (Dmitrieva and Dutta 2020), and Shanghai Chinese (Chen 2011) showed higher F0 onsets than voiceless aspirated stops. In contrast, voiceless unaspirated stops of Chru (Brunelle et al 2020), Madurese (Misnadin 2016), and Thai (Shimizu 1989) entailed lower F0 onsets than voiceless aspirated stops.…”

“…Aspirated stops have higher spectral tilt at the onset of following vowels than non-aspirated stops (Brunelle et al 2019;Esposito and Khan 2012;Gao et al 2020;Seyfarth and Garellek 2018). For example, in Dzongkha (Kirby and Hyslop 2019), Hindi/Urdu (Schertz and Khan 2020), Gujarati , and Marathi (Berkson 2019;Dmitrieva and Dutta 2020), aspirated stops have been reported to show higher H1*-H2* and H1*-A1* at the onset of following vowels than voiceless unaspirated stops. In terms of voicing, there were no clear differences in H1*-H2* onsets of voiceless unaspirated and voiced unaspirated stops in Hindi/Urdu (Schertz and Khan 2020).…”

Voiced aspirates with mixed voicing in Yemba, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

“…From prior examination of aspirated tokens (see Section 1.2), we assume that voice quality cannot be reliably characterized on aspiration because phonation is most often absent. However, we expect that phonation adjacent to the aspiration interval may be relatively breathy in Yemba, in line with previous experimental findings showing carryover coarticulation of laryngeal state from onset consonants to following vowels (Löfqvist & McGowan 1992;Ní Chasaide & Gobl 1993;Dutta 2007;Dmitrieva & Dutta 2020) and the initiation of glottal spread gestures prior to or during associated consonant constriction (Kagaya 1974;Kagaya & Hirose 1975;Benguerel & Bhatia 1980;Dixit 1989). In an effort to characterize the influence of aspiration on its surroundings and evaluate Hypothesis 2, we calculated voice quality measures from the EGG and acoustic signals for each flanking consonantal constriction and vowel.…”

Phonetic feature size in second language acquisition: Examining VOT in voiceless and voiced stops

“…A positive VOT measurement occurs when vocal fold vibration follows the release of the oral closure. With respect to the voicing contrast, Dmitrieva and Dutta (2020) note that VOT 'has served as a cornerstone of acoustical investigations of laryngeal contrasts' and provides a unified basis for distinguishing stop voicing contrasts across a wide range of languages (p. 210). While VOT may serve as a primary or unifying cue, additional secondary cues may also be relevant, including F0 onset (Dmitrieva et al, 2015) and aspiration (Cho and Ladefoged, 1999).…”