Dialectal variation of duration patterns in Finnmark North Sámi quantity

Abstract

Ternary length contrast is a rare phonological feature, investigated here both in terms of its realization and possible undergoing changes. In North S ami, a phonetically under-documented and endangered Fenno-Ugric language spoken by indigenous people in Northern Europe, the ternary quantity contrast is assumed to be signalled by a progressive lengthening of a consonant and a compensatory shortening of the previous vowel. This study evaluates this assumption and compares the realization of the length contrasts in two dialects, the Western and Eastern Finnmark North S ami. The results show that while the contrast between the short and the two longer quantities is robustly signaled regardless of the dialect, the durational differences between the two longer quantities are maintained only in the Eastern dialect. On the other hand, a vowel quantity contrast independent of the quantity of the following consonant is present in the Western but not in the Eastern dialect. Further, comparing the phonetic realization of the ternary quantity contrast for speakers of different ages presents evidence of a language change: the results indicate an ongoing neutralization of the ternary contrast in younger speakers, which points to a possible disappearance of this rare typological feature in Finnmark North S ami. V

The role of duration and pitch in signaling quantity in Finnmark North Sámi

“…As attested previously [16,3,6], the opposition between the two shorter quantity degrees, Q1 and Q2, is robustly signalled by durations of both the consonant and preceding vowel, with the consonant being considerably longer in Q2 than in Q1, and the vowel shorter in the former than in the latter, in a compensatory manner. Naturally, this inverse relationship is further magnified when considering durations in relative terms, such as as a C2:V1 duration ratio.…”

“…These quantity oppositions are assumed to be phonetically manifested primarily by durational variation. As shown in our previous work [3,6], the Q1-Q2 contrast is indeed robustly signalled by the intervocalic consonant duration (shorter in Q1 than in Q2), and also by a compensatory shortening of the previous vowel in the longer quantity. The situation is somewhat more subtle for Q2-Q3 contrast, and the phonetic realization of this opposition shows interesting dialectal differences.…”

“…leads to the significant dependency of the 'foot' duration on quantity, in particular for Q1-Q2 contrast. With an exception of a small effect for Q1-Q2 opposition for F2, the foot durations did not significantly depend on quantity for the Finnish bilinguals, the behavior consistent with compensations leading to a foot isochrony [17,6]. We suggest that these differences between the areal varieties could be attributed to the majority language influence on the bilingual speakers of North Sámi.…”

“…The language is nevertheless a minority language in the respective countries where it is spoken, meaning that all its adult speakers are bilingual, and conduct many of their daily activities in the official state language. As can be expected, this bilinguality has an influence on many aspects of the language, including several prosodic phenomena (see [2,3]).…”

“…The small lengthening of C2 and the compensatory shortening of V1 in Q3 compared to Q2 may be result in larger differences in relative durations captured by, for example, a durational ratio between C2 and V1 (cf. [6]). Interestingly, the Fig.…”