Abstract:The category of APPROXIMANT sounds has been defined and redefined by leading phoneticians and recognized by the International Phonetic Association; nonetheless, within this class of sounds, semivowels, rhotic sonorants and other approximants such as [B § D § V § ] are not clearly differentiated. In a recently-published study, Martínez-Celdrán (2004) proposes a new definition which considers approximants as a category composed of several subclasses of sounds. In this paper, an acoustic analysis of the approxima… Show more
“…That is, we found the hierarchies of constriction for the target consonants in Madrid Spanish that are shown in table 3. This is in agreement in part with the traditional account, according to which /d/ is a stop after /l/, and also in part with other recent acoustic studies, that also have found very constricted realizations of the voiced obstruents after /s/ [Martínez-Celdrán and Regueira, 2008;Eddington, 2011]. We did not test for statistical differences between / ld/ and /sd/.…”
The Spanish voiced obstruents /b d g/ are traditionally described as having each two allophones: stop and fricative (approximant) in complementary distribution. Several researchers have noted that some Central American and Highland Colombian varieties deviate from the general allophonic distribution in showing a preference for stop realizations in all contexts, except for the intervocalic position. In this paper we report on a large-scale acoustic investigation of /b d g/ in postconsonantal (after a liquid, sibilant or glide) and postvocalic (after /a/) contexts in Costa Rica Spanish, establishing a comparison with the variety of Madrid, Spain, which we take as representative of a variety with the general pattern of allophony. Our study, based on a continuous measurement of intensity, confirms previous descriptions in that Costa Rica Spanish does indeed show a different pattern of allophony from that found in the Madrid variety. The analysis shows that in Costa Rica Spanish postconsonantal realizations of /b/ and /d/ are very different from postvocalic ones, with a clear separation in the degree of constriction between these two contexts. In Madrid, on the other hand, we find a continuum of constriction degrees, depending on the nature of the specific preceding segment, and without a clear separation between postvocalic and postconsonantal realizations. The question that naturally arises is that of the historical connection between these two patterns of allophony, for which we offer some speculation, based in historical parallels and comparison with other varieties.
“…That is, we found the hierarchies of constriction for the target consonants in Madrid Spanish that are shown in table 3. This is in agreement in part with the traditional account, according to which /d/ is a stop after /l/, and also in part with other recent acoustic studies, that also have found very constricted realizations of the voiced obstruents after /s/ [Martínez-Celdrán and Regueira, 2008;Eddington, 2011]. We did not test for statistical differences between / ld/ and /sd/.…”
The Spanish voiced obstruents /b d g/ are traditionally described as having each two allophones: stop and fricative (approximant) in complementary distribution. Several researchers have noted that some Central American and Highland Colombian varieties deviate from the general allophonic distribution in showing a preference for stop realizations in all contexts, except for the intervocalic position. In this paper we report on a large-scale acoustic investigation of /b d g/ in postconsonantal (after a liquid, sibilant or glide) and postvocalic (after /a/) contexts in Costa Rica Spanish, establishing a comparison with the variety of Madrid, Spain, which we take as representative of a variety with the general pattern of allophony. Our study, based on a continuous measurement of intensity, confirms previous descriptions in that Costa Rica Spanish does indeed show a different pattern of allophony from that found in the Madrid variety. The analysis shows that in Costa Rica Spanish postconsonantal realizations of /b/ and /d/ are very different from postvocalic ones, with a clear separation in the degree of constriction between these two contexts. In Madrid, on the other hand, we find a continuum of constriction degrees, depending on the nature of the specific preceding segment, and without a clear separation between postvocalic and postconsonantal realizations. The question that naturally arises is that of the historical connection between these two patterns of allophony, for which we offer some speculation, based in historical parallels and comparison with other varieties.
“…In the present paper we highlight a further deficit which might, arguably, be filled with revised and approved IPA symbols, and which also has far-reaching theoretical and practical significance, particularly in clinical speech contexts. The current paper contributes to and complements recent work on classifying subcategories of approximants undertaken by Martínez-Celdrán (2004) and Martínez-Celdrán & Regueira (2008). When considering possible new symbols, we bear in mind the criteria discussed in Ball (2008): these include preserving a resemblance to existing symbols which share key elements of articulation, avoiding diacritics which shift the target symbol to a different perceptual category, and the requirement that symbols can be efficiently rendered by computer software.…”
Approximants that can be considered weaker versions of voiced fricatives (termed here 'frictionless continuants') are poorly served by the IPA in terms of symbolization as compared to semi-vowel approximants. In this paper we survey the central approximants and the symbols and diacritics used to transcribe them; we focus on evidence for the use of non-rhotic frictionless continuants in both natural language (by which we mean non-clinical varieties) and disordered speech; and we suggest some possible unitary symbols for those that currently require the use of a hard-to-read lowering diacritic beneath the symbol for the corresponding voiced fricative.
This paper examines the production of word-initial stops by two simultaneous trilingual sisters, aged 6;8 and 8;1, who receive regular input in Italian and English from multiple
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
