Segmental and Prosodic Effects on Intervocalic Voiced Stop Reduction in Connected Speech

Abstract

De scriptions of lenition have often assumed that connected speech reductions are the phonetic precursors of phonological lenition processes. In this article, production of intervocalic voiced stops during reading in American English is examined to determine whether connected speech reduction processes mirror the stages of lenition that have been posited in the phonological literature. The first result shows that American English speakers never lenite to fricatives or debuccalize to [h] or glottal stop, but rather produce approximants whenever reduction occurs. Second, stress plays an essential role: 51% of stops are produced as approximants when stress is on the preceding syllable (e.g. ‘yoga'), but only 7% of stops weaken when stress is on the following syllable (e.g. ‘lagoon'). Approximant productions are longer and higher in intensity than stop productions when stress precedes the target consonant, but when stress follows the target consonant, the stop cues are enhanced. These acoustic findings suggest that English speakers prioritize the realization of acoustic cues to stress, including the robust production of stop consonants, over pressures to reduce or weaken consonants in intervocalic position.

A replicable acoustic measure of lenition and the nature of variability in Gurindji stops

“…In previous research, measures of change of intensity (Δi) during a consonant have been employed as quantitative indexes of lenition in studies of Florentine Italian, Spanish, and American English (Bouavichith & Davidson, 2013;Colantoni & Marinescu, 2010;Dalcher, 2006;Lavoie, 2001;Lewis, 2001). Kingston (2008) and in particular employ measures of peak intensity velocity (P i ) as a measure of lenition, on the grounds that more lenis variants have less abrupt acoustic transitions, making it difficult to demarcate their edges and hence determine where to measure Δi from.…”

Informativity affects consonant duration and deletion rates

“…Warner and Tucker (2011) compared the articulation of intervocalic oral stops in several phonetic environments and styles of speech, including read speech and phone conversations. Bouavichith and Davidson (2013) focused on intervocalic voiced stops in American English using words that were embedded in short stories.…”

Reduced speech: All is variability

“…Reduced /b, g/ are also common, and are in only a slightly better situation for IPA symbols. And yet Ernestus (2000), Barry and Andreeva (2001), and Arai (1999) show that reduction of intervocalic voiced stops to approximants is cross-linguistically common, and Warner and Tucker (2011) and Bouavichith & Davidson (2013) show these are very common realizations in English. It seems surprising that the IPA does not have an obvious way to reflect these common sounds.…”