Blending in heterosyllabic consonant clusters in three Catalan dialects (original) (raw)
Related papers
Coarticulation, assimilation and blending in Catalan consonant clusters
Journal of Phonetics, 2001
Electropalatographic data on C-to-C coarticulatory e!ects were analyzed for consonant clusters composed of an extensive set of Catalan consonants, i.e., dentals (t), alveolars (n, dark l, s, trilled r), alveolopalatals (ʃ, V, E), palatals ( j) and velars (k). Regarding tongue dorsum coarticulation, results show that consonantal e!ects in CC clusters are more prominent than vocalic e!ects in VCV sequences which is attributed to di!erences in articulatory control between consonants and vowels. Moreover, tongue dorsum lowering for the alveolar fricative and for the alveolar trill appears to be more coarticulation resistant than tongue dorsum raising and fronting for alveolopalatals. Data at the place of articulation show some interesting trends: on the one hand, sequences made of dentals (t), and fronter alveolars and alveolopalatals (i.e., n, l, V, E) yield articulatory blending; on the other hand, any of these consonants may assimilate to those alveolar and alveolopalatal consonants which exhibit a more retracted place of articulation (s, r, ʃ ), but not vice versa. These "ndings are in agreement with the &°ree of articulatory constraint'' (DAC) model which relates coarticulatory and assimilatory e!ects to the degree of articulatory constraint involved in consonantal production, and predicts that fricatives and trills should be highly constrained both at the tongue front and at the tongue dorsum. Data on the relative strength of the anticipatory and carry-over e!ects reported in this paper are also to a large extent in agreement with predictions of the DAC model.
Voicing assimilation in Catalan two-consonant clusters
Journal of Phonetics, 2012
This paper reports electroglottographic (EGG) data for consonant sequences composed of a word final stop or fricative followed by a voiced consonant produced by eight speakers of a Romance language, i.e., Catalan, where these clusters undergo regressive voicing assimilation. Analysis results reveal considerable speaker-and consonant-dependent differences in the temporal period of vocal fold vibration during C1. In agreement with the degree of articulatory constraint (DAC) model of coarticulation, there appears to be a direct relationship between the extent to which consonants allow contextual voicing (voicing coarticulation resistance) and exert voicing effects on other consonants (voicing coarticulation aggressiveness) in a good number of cases; in other cases, however, this prediction does not hold, mainly in fricative þ nasal, lateral sequences presumably due to the aerodynamic requirements involved. EGG and acoustic data for two-obstruent cluster pairs where C2 may be underlyingly voiced or voiceless but agrees in place and manner of articulation show that speakers may use not only the temporal extent of vocal fold vibration but also C1 and preceding vowel duration (as well as fricative noise intensity in clusters with C1 ¼ /s/) as voicing cues; in particular, segmental duration was found to stay more constant than vocal fold vibration across speakers. In view of this cooccurring relation, it is concluded that regressive voicing assimilation in Catalan may be signaled by vocal fold vibration and segmental duration and intensity acting interactively.
Place and manner assimilation in Catalan consonant clusters
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2015
Electropalatographic data on the frequency of occurrence of assimilatory processes in Catalan C1##C2 sequences, where ## is inserted at the boundary between two consecutive words, reveal that regressive place assimilations operate more often on C1 = /n/ than on C1 = /t/ and are triggered by /ɡ/ rather than by the labials /pbm/ and the voiceless velar stop /k/. Regressive manner assimilations involving nasality and laterality are facilitated by homorganicity between the two consecutive consonants and thus apply more frequently in the clusters /pmtntltʎ/, where C1 and C2 share the same labial or dentoalveolar place of articulation, than in the sequences /pntmkmkn/, where the two consonants are heterorganic; on the other hand, /k/ is less prone than /pt/ to become nasal when followed by /mn/. Place assimilatory processes apply more often for some speakers than for others, and their frequency of occurrence increases whenever C1 is embedded in a frequent or function word. The articulator...
Author ' s personal copy Voicing assimilation in Catalan three-consonant clusters
2013
Electroglottographic and acoustic data for Catalan three-consonant clusters composed of a wordand syllable-final C1C2 sequence and an underlyingly voiced C3 in wordand syllable-initial position were collected in order to verify whether a regressive voicing assimilation process operates on all obstruents placed at the C2 and C1 sites. Data reveal the presence of low percentages of vocal fold vibration during final stops and fricatives, C3-dependent regressive voicing effects occurring to some extent during C2 but not during C1, and a more robust voicing interaction involving C1 and C2 and thus consonants placed within the same syllable and the same word. Moreover, except for perceptually and/or aerodynamically conditioned cases, voicing effects were found to be triggered by sonorants rather than by obstruents and the trill /r/ in agreement with the predictions of the Degree of Articulatory Constraint (DAC) model of coarticulation. Acoustic data for three-consonant cluster pairs diffe...
Voicing assimilation in Catalan three-consonant clusters
Journal of Phonetics, 2013
Electroglottographic and acoustic data for Catalan three-consonant clusters composed of a word-and syllable-final C1C2 sequence and an underlyingly voiced C3 in word-and syllable-initial position were collected in order to verify whether a regressive voicing assimilation process operates on all obstruents placed at the C2 and C1 sites. Data reveal the presence of low percentages of vocal fold vibration during final stops and fricatives, C3-dependent regressive voicing effects occurring to some extent during C2 but not during C1, and a more robust voicing interaction involving C1 and C2 and thus consonants placed within the same syllable and the same word. Moreover, except for perceptually and/or aerodynamically conditioned cases, voicing effects were found to be triggered by sonorants rather than by obstruents and the trill /r/ in agreement with the predictions of the Degree of Articulatory Constraint (DAC) model of coarticulation. Acoustic data for three-consonant cluster pairs differing in the underlying C3 voicing status show that speakers may use C2 duration and intensity (but not C1 or preceding vowel duration) as voicing cues. Taken together these results suggest that voicing assimilation in Catalan three-consonant cluster cannot be modeled as a long-distance regressive process, and is strongly dependent on syllable/word affiliation and on the manner and place of articulation characteristics of the consonants in the cluster.
Phonetica, 2014
Electroglottographic data for word-final obstruents in C#C and CC#C sequences with a word-initial voiced consonant indicate that regressive voicing adaptation is a categorical and thus assimilatory process for most Catalan speakers. Word-final obstruents are planned as voiced since they exhibit full voicing or else an initial voicing period which is longer than the voicing lag associated with the vowel preceding the cluster. Segmental duration may also be used by speakers for realizing word-final obstruents as voiced in C#C but not in CC#C clusters. The phonetic implementation of voicing assimilation proceeds gradually: voicing for word-final obstruents differs considerably among speakers and is less for fricatives than for stops and whenever the word-initial consonant is an obstruent or an approximant than when it is a nasal, a lateral or an alveolar trill. The study also reveals that those C1 realizations which are less prone to acquire voicing show more token-totoken variability in voicing and segmental duration and therefore appear to be less tightly controlled by speakers. In conjunction with data from other studies, these Catalan data suggest that speakers and languages with prevoiced stops may differ with respect to the more or less gradient phonetic implementation of the regressive voicing assimilation process in heterosyllabic consonant clusters.
Differences in Base of Articulation for Consonants among Catalan Dialects
Phonetica, 2010
Electropalatographic data for several front lingual consonants, i.e., the dental /t/, the alveolars /n, l, s, r/ and the alveolopalatals /tʃ, ʃ, ʎ, ɲ/, show differences in constriction anteriority among Catalan dialects varying in the progression Valencian > Eastern, with the Majorcan dialect occupying an intermediate position. These differences do not conform to speaker-dependent differences in palate morphology and, to the extent that they operate on a varied range of consonants, may be attributed to base of articulation. Deviations from this pattern are associated with manner of articulation and symmetry demands. A specific dialect-dependent relationship between tongue dorsum contact and constriction fronting is interpreted assuming the existence of less laminal, more apical dental and alveolar stops, and less dorsal, more laminal alveolopalatals, in Valencian than in the other two dialects. These data are interpreted in terms of the articulatory characteristics for different tongue front settings which have been proposed in the literature.
Journal of Phonetics, 2006
[h] (lateral) may exhibit two places of articulation, i.e., alveolopalatal and palatal proper, depending not only on vowel context but on position and speaker as well. In this Catalan dialect, [E] and [h] have phonological status while [c] is an allophone of /k/ and is articulated at a fronter location than front /k/ in languages such as English. Several consonant-dependent differences appear to be of universal validity, i.e., a trend for [E] and [h] to exhibit a more anterior closure location than [c] (perhaps due to manner requirements) or else for [c] and [E] to share a similar place of articulation (presumably for the sake of articulatory economy), and more stability for closures formed at the alveolopalatal zone than at the mediopalate. The three palatal consonants exhibit more overall contact, fronting and duration but also more coarticulation utterance initially than utterance finally (and even intervocalically) thus suggesting that they may blend with the adjacent vowel rather than resisting its influence in the former position while failing to undergo substantial articulatory reduction in the latter. r
An Electropalatographic Investigation of Segmental Complexity in Alveolopalatal Consonants
2007
Electropalatographic data on Catalan Ip] and [j] indicate the wnvenience to distinguish at least two articulatory classes of high dorsal consonants (excluding velars), 1.e." alveolopalatals and palatals proper Lingual wntact at the mediopostpalatal zone is less extensive and more variable Sor [JI] than for [j], which suggests that the tongue dorsum is actctlvated for the latter consonant but not for the former. It is claimed that the presence of a large extent of wntact behind the alveoloprepalatal zone and a fi]-like wnfiguration at closure offset is not indicative of the presence OS a dorsal gesture for Ip] but results from mechamcal effects. This viem suggests that alveolopalatals are not complex segments (produced with a tongut blade gesture and a tongue dorsum gesture) but s~mple segments (produced with the blade and the predorsum at the alveolo-prepalatal zone) Phonetlc and phonological processes lnvolving the consonants ~nto wnsideration can be explained assuming their non-wmplex status.
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2005
Electropalatographic and acoustic data reported in this study show differences in closure location and degree, dorsopalatal contact size, closure duration, relative timing of events and formant frequency between clear /l/ and dark /l/ in two dialects of Catalan (Valencian and Majorcan). The two Catalan dialects under investigation differ also regarding degree of darkness but essentially not regarding coarticulatory resistance at the word edges, i.e. the alveolar lateral is equally dark word-initially and word-finally in Majorcan, and clearer in the former position vs. than the latter in Valencian, and more resistant to vowel effects in the two positions than intervocalically in both dialects. With reference to data from the literature, it appears that languages and dialects may differ as to whether /l/ is dark or clear in all word positions or whether or not initial /l/ is clearer than final /l/, and that articulatory strengthening occurs not only word-and utterance-initially but word-and utterance-finally as well. These and other considerations confirm the hypothesis that degree of darkness in /l/ proceeds gradually rather than categorically from one language to another.