Oral–laryngeal timing in glottalised resonants

An Exemplar Dynamic Approach to Language Shift

“…Contrary to van Eijk (1997), who found that stress was the primary factor at play in Lower St'at'imcets, previous acoustic research on the Upper dialect has shown that timing in laryngealized resonants depends primarily on syllable position, as summarized in 3: pre-laryngealization is most common in onset position, post-laryngealization in coda position, and mid-laryngealization intervocalically (Bird et al 2008). However, this research considers only overall patterns, not individual differences which, as we shall see, are substantial.…”

“…As a final note on St'at'imcets, and as mentioned in section 3, laryngealization in this language has a very low functional load. This may explain why variation is so much greater in this language than in other languages which are equally endangered, such as Nuu-chah-nulth (Esling et al 2005;Bird et al 2008).…”

“…( A closer look at the data presented in Bird et al (2008) and Bird and Caldecott (2004) reveals that aside from syllabic position, other factors come into play in determining timing. Of particular importance to the current discussion, timing is to a large extent speaker-specific, as is realization.…”

“…Previous literature has focused on timing and has shown that the most common pattern cross-linguistically is pre-laryngealization, where laryngealization occurs at the onset of the resonant (Gordon and Ladefoged 2001). Among Salish languages however, timing varies on a language-specific basis (Bird et al 2008). As for the realization of the laryngeal gesture, very little is currently known about how it may vary within and across languages.…”

The Nature of Laryngealization in St’át’imcets Laryngealized Resonants

“…Laryngealized resonants 2 -described in detail below-are ideal for studying this variability because they vary along two dimensions: the realization of the laryngeal gesture and the timing of this gesture relative to the oral one(s). While timing has been explored in detail in many languages (see Bird et al 2008 for a summary of the relevant literature), realization has so far received very little attention. The goal of this paper is to take a step toward filling this gap by considering the realization of the laryngeal gesture of laryngealized resonants in St'át'imcets (Lillooet Salish), a Northern Interior Salish language.…”