Effects of syllable position on sound change: An aerodynamic study of final fricative weakening

Solé, Maria‐Josep

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2010.02.001

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…isla [ˈihla] 'island'; capaz [kaˈpah] 'able'). Weakening of syllable-final fricatives is a common phenomenon in many languages, and aspiration as a result of voiceless fricative lenition is reported for a number of other languages and Romance dialects (see Solé, 2010, for an overview and an explanation based on an aerodynamic account).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration to post-aspiration in Andalusian Spanish

Ruch

Harrington

2014

Journal of Phonetics

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The study is concerned with the mechanisms by which pre-and post-aspiration are related synchronically and diachronically in Andalusian Spanish. An analysis of isolated word productions by 24 speakers of a Western Andalusian and by 24 of an Eastern Andalusian variety each divided into two age groups provided evidence for a sound change in progress: younger speakers and those of the Western Andalusian variety were more likely to produce /st/ with a shorter pre-aspiration and with a longer postaspiration phase than their older and Eastern Andalusian counterparts. The results of further betweengroup duration analyses show that the sound change cannot be entirely explained by a realignment from an anti-phase to an in-phase timing relationship between the closure and glottal opening; they also provide evidence for the development of a trading relationship between the duration of the closure and the duration of post-aspiration. In order to test whether perceptual factors might have contributed to this sound change, a perception experiment was carried out. Listeners of Argentinian Spanish judged stimuli of a minimal pair pasta-pata with variable pre-aspiration duration in a forced-choice perception test. When the continuum was synthesized with a slightly post-aspirated stop release, listeners were more inclined to perceive pasta, which suggests that post-aspiration is parsed with pre-aspiration and serves as a cue for the underlying /st/ even in a non-post-aspirating variety of Spanish. AbstractThe study is concerned with the mechanisms by which pre-and post-aspiration are

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration to post-aspiration in Andalusian Spanish

Ruch

Harrington

2014

Journal of Phonetics

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“…Physiological investigations into the coordination between the oral closure and the glottal opening gesture are needed to understand how the slightly longer VOT in /s/ + voiceless stops arises. Of particular interest for the question of sound change actuation would be a comparison between Andalusian Spanish and another variety with /s/-lenition since coarticulation and gestural coordination is known to be language-and dialect-specific (Browman & Goldstein, 1992;Garrett & Johnson, 2013;Solé, 2007). Such an investigation could shed light on the question of whether postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish are due to a dialect-specific coordination between oral and glottal gestures (as suggested by Torreira, 2012), or if such a process is likely to take place in other varieties of Spanish as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Origin of Post-Aspirated Stops: Production and Perception of /s/ + Voiceless Stop Sequences in Andalusian Spanish

Ruch

Peters²

2016

Laboratory Phonology

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The present study investigates the role of articulatory and perceptual factors in the change from pre-to post-aspiration in two varieties of Andalusian Spanish. In an acoustic study, the influence of stop type, speaker age, and variety on the production of pre-and post-aspiration was analyzed in isolated words produced by 24 speakers of a Western and 24 of an Eastern variety, both divided into two age groups. The results confirmed previous findings of a sound change from pre-to post-aspiration in both varieties. Velar stops showed the longest, bilabials the shortest, and dental stops intermediate pre-and post-aspiration durations. The observed universal VOTpattern was not found for younger Western Andalusian speakers who showed a particularly long VOT in /st/-sequences. A perception experiment with the same subjects as listeners showed that post-aspiration was used as a cue for distinguishing the minimal pair /pata/-/pasta/ by almost all listeners. Production-perception comparisons suggested a relationship between production and perception: subjects who produced long post-aspiration were also more sensitive to this cue. In sum, the results suggest that the sound change has first been actuated in the dental context, possibly due to a higher perceptual prominence of post-aspiration in this context, and that post-aspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish are on their way to being phonologized.

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“…Solé (2010) compares coda and onset fricatives based on simultaneous acoustic and aerodynamic data, and shows that coda fricatives show a reduced oral gesture, a lower oral pressure build-up, lower velocity of air through the oral constriction and a less intense frication. According to Solé (2010), delayed onset of frication is of consequence to language change, as it may result in a shorter fricative, which is more likely to get affected by overlapping gestures in a pre-consonantal environment. Gradient voicing resulting from increased overlap might, with time, become categorical through perceptual reinterpretation on the part of listeners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Solé (2010) [8] Optionality of post-lexical rules is, in fact, widely observed. Examples include variable realisation of English r-sandhi (Giegerich 1999), English /n#k/ sandhi, where some speakers vary between categorical assimilation and no assimilation (Ellis & Hardcastle 2002), as well as Italian nasal place assimilation, which tends to be categorical, but which may be suspended when there is a word boundary intervening, particularly in slower speech (Celata et al 2013).…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Solé (2010), delayed onset of frication is of consequence to language change, as it may result in a shorter fricative, which is more likely to get affected by overlapping gestures in a preconsonantal environment. Gradient voicing resulting from increased overlap might, with time, become categorical through perceptual reinterpretation on the part of listeners.…”

Section: S I B I L a N T V O I C I N G I N Q U I T O S P A N I S Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phonetic evidence on phonology–morphosyntax interactions: Sibilant voicing in Quito Spanish

et al. 2013

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This paper presents new experimental data on Quito Spanish /s/-voicing, which has attracted considerable interest from theoretical phonologists owing to the overapplication of voicing to word-final pre-vocalic /s/. Bermúdez-Otero (2011) singles out Quito /s/-voicing as an important test case for discriminating between two competing theories of phonology–morphosyntax interactions: Output–output correspondence and cyclicity. Overapplication in /s/-voicing cannot be captured using correspondence relationship to a base form, which challenges Output–output correspondence as a theory of opacity. However, the argument only holds insofar as word-final pre-vocalic /s/-voicing is considered phonological, as Output–output correspondence can account for /s/-voicing assuming that it only applies in the phonetics (Colina 2009). We discuss the diverging empirical predictions concerning categoricity and gradience in the surface realisation of voicing processes. We further test these predictions based on acoustic data from seven speakers of Quito Spanish. Evidence from speech rate manipulations shows that some speakers produce more voicing during frication at normal speech rate, compared to fast, maintaining a stable voicing ratio across different speech rates. We argue that for these speakers, /s/-voicing is optional but categorical, and so it ought to be analysed as phonological. This result presents a challenge to the Output–output correspondence approach, but can be accommodated within cyclicity.

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Effects of syllable position on sound change: An aerodynamic study of final fricative weakening

Cited by 22 publications

References 39 publications

Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration to post-aspiration in Andalusian Spanish

Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration to post-aspiration in Andalusian Spanish

On the Origin of Post-Aspirated Stops: Production and Perception of /s/ + Voiceless Stop Sequences in Andalusian Spanish

Phonetic evidence on phonology–morphosyntax interactions: Sibilant voicing in Quito Spanish

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