airstream mechanisms and vot

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Airstream mechanisms and VOT Dr. Christian DiCanio cdicanio@buffalo.edu University at Buffalo 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 1 / 31

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Page 1: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Dr. Christian [email protected]

University at Buffalo

10/1/15 - 10/6/15

DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 1 / 31

Page 2: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Preliminaries

Where we’ve been...

We’re almost done covering most of the basic aspects of articulatoryphonetics

1 English phonology and phonetics

2 Place of articulation

3 Manner of articulation

4 Articulatory methods

5 Speech aerodynamics

DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 2 / 31

Page 3: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Preliminaries

Where we’re going this week and next

Finishing up articulatory phonetics

1 Airstream mechanisms

2 Phonation type

3 VOT

DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 3 / 31

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Preliminaries

Where we’re going later...

1 Acoustic phonetics (next week)

2 Source-filter theory of speech production

3 Vowel acoustics

4 Stop/fricative acoustics

5 Spectrogram reading and Praat training

6 Phonetic fieldwork

7 Prosody, suprasegmentals, and tone

8 Hearing, speech perception

9 Phonological/phonetic features

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Airstream mechanisms

Airstream mechanisms

The majority of speech sounds in human languages are generated via aircoming out of the lungs. This is a pulmonic airstream mechanism.

However, articulations made in the oral cavity can be generated by othermeans of moving airflow.

The source/manner of generating airflow in speech articulations is calledan airstream mechanism.

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Airstream mechanisms

What are the possible closed cavities here?

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Airstream mechanisms

Flow types

Ingressive airflow involves movement of the airflow into the oralcavity.

Egressive airflow involves movement of the airflow out of the oralcavity.

For a pulmonic airstream mechanism, most speech sounds are producedwith egressive airflow. Though, some small exceptions exist, such as theSwedish/Danish “ja” ‘yes’, which may be uttered with pulmonic ingressiveairflow.

Also, English “Huh!”, indicating shock, is uttered with ingressive airflow(but perhaps little voicing).

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Airstream mechanisms

Non-pulmonic airstream mechanisms

However, it is not just airflow into or out of the lungs that is the source ofsound.

A glottalic airstream mechanism involves closure made at the glottis(a glottal stop, [P]) and either upward or downward movement of thelarynx to create airflow.

A velaric airstream mechanism involves closure made at the velum(with or without velic closure) and compression of the anteriorconstriction to create airflow.

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Airstream mechanisms

Glottalic egressives

If there is glottal closure and the larynx is raised during the production ofan obstruent, the pressure behind the constriction will increase.

Glottalic egressives, or ejectives are produced when the oral constriction isreleased prior to a release of the glottal closure.

The airflow is forced outward (egressive) since air particles at higherpressure will move to lower (atmospheric) pressure.

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Airstream mechanisms

Steps in ejectives

(Ladefoged and Johnson, 2011:137)DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 10 / 31

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Airstream mechanisms

Ejective types

Ejectives are transcribed with an apostrophe after the consonant, e.g. [k’,s’, x’, tS’].

Since ejectives are produced with glottal closure, they are always voiceless.The velum must also remain raised. Why do you think that is?

Ejectives occur in 16.8% of the world’s languages, including in manySemitic languages, Caucasian languages, and among many differentfamilies within the Americas (Salish, Athabaskan, Wakashan,Otomanguean, Mayan, etc) (Maddieson, 2013).

See Salish examples from Praat.

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Page 12: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms

Lakhota contrasts ejectives at three places of articulation

Bilabial Dental Velarp’o t”’uSE k’u‘foggy’ ‘at all costs’ ‘to give’paGot”a t”uwa kah‘mallard’ ‘who’ ‘that’pxa t”xawa kxant”a‘bitter’ ‘bridge’ ‘plum’

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Airstream mechanisms

Ejective acoustics

The release of the consonant constriction always precedes the glottalclosure release, sometimes by a significant duration. Example below fromIxcatec word [tS’u] ‘chocolate’

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Airstream mechanisms

Ejective stops are more common in the world’s languages than ejectivefricatives.

It is difficult to maintain high oral air pressure above the glottis for therelease while simultaneously producing enough airflow for the turbulence.

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Airstream mechanisms

Glottalic ingressives

It is also possible to lower the larynx with a glottalic airstream, producinga glottalic ingressive, or implosive.

Lowering the larynx during the production of an oral stop decreases theoral cavity volume and thus lowers intra-oral air pressure relative toatmospheric pressure.

Upon release of the oral closure, air rushes in. The glottis is then released(usually for the onset of a vowel) and the airflow moves in the oppositedirection (a pulmonic egressive).

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Airstream mechanisms

Steps in implosives

(Ladefoged and Johnson, 2011:141)DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 16 / 31

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Airstream mechanisms

Implosive types

Implosives are transcribed with a rightward hook at the top of theconsonant, e.g. [á, â, ê].

Implosives may be voiced or voiceless. However, voiceless implosives arerather rare. Expansion of the oral cavity volume is a mechanism that will

decrease the intra-oral air pressure, thus facilitate voicing. Why?Implosives occur in 13.2% of the world’s languages, including in many

Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and the Chadic branch of Afro- Asiaticlanguages. They are also found in certain Southeast Asian languages(Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai) (Maddieson, 2013).

See Sindhi examples on UCLA lab archive.

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Airstream mechanisms

Implosive acoustics

The normal production of voicing involves a decay in the amplitude ofvocal fold vibration due to air pressure equalization.

With implosives, the increased volume of the oral cavity allows voicing tocontinue and even to increase in amplitude. An example of this is found inMpiemo, a Bantu language (Nagano-Madsen and Thornell, 2012)F ONETIK 2012, Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg

!both stem initially and medially in an analogous environment were prepared. The word in question was produced twice in isolation and once in an embedded sentence. Recordings of four male native speakers of Mpiemo were obtained in the town of Nola in the Central African Republic by the second author. A total of 960 sample words were obtained. The recorded data was analyzed using PRAAT and SUGI Speechanalyzer.

Results The acoustic phonetic properties of the voiced plosives and implosives in Mpiemo will be described qualitatively with reference to a number of parameters that emerged from the previous studies on implosives. Figures 2 (a, b) show waveform, F0, wideband spectrogram, and intensity for [d] and [ ] in utterance initial position for two speakers. Figures 3 (a, b) show waveform of [b] and [ ] in intervocalic position for two speakers.

Figure 2 (a.) Speaker A.

Figure 2 (b) Speaker I. Waveform, F0, wideband spectrogram, and intensity for [d] and [ ] in utterance initial position. [ l ] ó

d

Figure 3 (a). Speaker A.

Figure 3 (b). Speaker I. Waveform of [b] in column (a) and [ ] in column (b) in intervocalic position. (a) [àbú í] [à í]

Voicing Even though implosives are most typically

because of their roduction mechanism, the variability in voicing across languages in the production of implosives has been pointed out. In Xhosa, a Southern-Bantu language spoken in South Africa, only implosives are

plosives are much closer to a voiceless plosive than a voiced plosive, percentage of voicing being below 20% and lower than those reported for English and German (Jessen 2002).!

Our data of Mpiemo suggests that both implosives and voiced plosives are fully voiced unless spoken very slowly (in that case, the early part of occlusion is voiceless), and there was no cross-speaker variability on this parameter.! Voicing amplitude Another area in which the production of implosives can vary across languages is voicing amplitude. Voicing amplitude, i.e. the amplitude of the vocal cord vibrations, can provide an indirect indication as to the state of vocal cord as well as the amount of cavity expansion in an implosive. Increasing voicing amplitude was typically associated with implosives while decreasing voicing amplitude was associated with voiced plosives. Voicing amplitude was a fairly consistent acoustic associate in differentiating implosives from voiced plosives in Mpiemo. These findings indicate that implosives and voiced plosives in

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Page 19: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms

Voicing may continue for longer in the production of implosives given theincreased oral cavity volume (and its lower pressure).

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Page 20: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms

Velaric ingressives

It is also possible to seal the oral cavity at the velum with dorso-velicclosure for the formation of a velaric ingressive, or click.

Closure at the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, or alveopalatal region is made andthe tongue body and jaw are lowered.

This produces a decrease in pressure and increase in volume within thecavity, so that upon release, airflow rushes inward (ingressive).

Following release of the front constriction, dorso-velar constriction isreleased to produce either a concomitant velar nasal or velar stop.

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Airstream mechanisms

Steps in click formation

(Ladefoged and Johnson, 2011:144)

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Page 22: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms

Click types

Clicks are transcribed using different characters in the IPA, [ò, |, !, }, {].

The velum may be either raised or lowered during click production and thesimultaneous velar stops may be voiced, [

>N|,

>g|], voiceless unaspirated [

>k|],

or aspirated [>k|h].

Clicks are rare in the world’s languages, though they may be used asnon-contrastive speech sounds in many languages.

They are found primarily in Khoisan languages, spoken in Southern Africa,in addition to languages that have had contact with Khoisan, such as Zulu(Bantu). Only 1.8% of the world’s languages have clicks and they aregeographically bound.

See Xhosa examples on UCLA lab archive.

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Airstream mechanisms

Click aerodynamics

Noise is generated in the production of a click from the sudden change inpressure across the constriction. Given that the post-velar portion of theoral cavity is small, expansion of this cavity by any means drasticallydecreases air pressure causing substantial airflow.

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DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 23 / 31

Page 24: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Airstream mechanisms

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(Thomas-Vilakati, 2010)DiCanio (UB) Airstream/VOT 10/1/15 - 10/6/15 24 / 31

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Airstream mechanisms

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(Thomas-Vilakati, 2010)

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Phonation type and VOT

VOT

VOT refers to voice onset time, which reflects the lag between therelease of a stop consonant and the onset of voicing.

Truly voiced stops have a negative VOT because voicing begins priorto the stop closure release.

Voiceless unaspirated stops have a VOT near 0, since voicing beginsimmediately after the stop closure release.

Voiceless aspirated stops have a VOT greater than 0, since voicingbegins after aspiration.

See examples in Praat.

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Phonation type and VOT

Determining VOT

We can determine VOT by measuring the time between the stop burstrelease, which appears as a short duration transient (aperiodic noise), andthe onset of regular, periodic vocal fold vibration.

Exactly what we categorize as phonetically voiced, voiceless unaspirated,and voiceless aspirated can vary substantially by language.

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Phonation type and VOT

Voiceless unaspirated stops

Figure 5. VOTs (ms) for the unaspirated coronal stops. (The Dahalo alveolarstops, which have anomalous VOTs, have been omitted).

Figure 6. VOTs (ms) for the aspirated coronal stops.

a more extended contact area) might have been expected to have a slower release, andhence a signi"cantly longer VOT. But it seems that the length of the contact is not animportant source of di!erences in VOT for the coronal stops in these languages.

The di!erences between bilabial stops and coronal stops are also not signi"cant. Manyof the languages investigated do not have bilabial stops, and accordingly we are leftwith only 13 languages to compare as shown in Fig. 7. The mean VOT of the unaspiratedbilabial stops is 15.3 ms and that for the coronal stops is 19.9 ms. A one-tailed paired

220 !. Cho & P. ¸adefoged

(Cho and Ladefoged, 1999)

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Page 29: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Phonation type and VOT

Voiceless aspirated stopsFigure 5. VOTs (ms) for the unaspirated coronal stops. (The Dahalo alveolarstops, which have anomalous VOTs, have been omitted).

Figure 6. VOTs (ms) for the aspirated coronal stops.

a more extended contact area) might have been expected to have a slower release, andhence a signi"cantly longer VOT. But it seems that the length of the contact is not animportant source of di!erences in VOT for the coronal stops in these languages.

The di!erences between bilabial stops and coronal stops are also not signi"cant. Manyof the languages investigated do not have bilabial stops, and accordingly we are leftwith only 13 languages to compare as shown in Fig. 7. The mean VOT of the unaspiratedbilabial stops is 15.3 ms and that for the coronal stops is 19.9 ms. A one-tailed paired

220 !. Cho & P. ¸adefoged

(Cho and Ladefoged, 1999)

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Page 30: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Phonation type and VOT

Velar stops

and Navajo, although they are closely related languages belonging to the same languagegroup, southern Athabaskan. Mean VOTs for alveolar and velar ejectives in Navajo areabout 234% and 156% of those in Apache. The lengthy pause that follows the release ofan ejective stop is a salient aspect of Navajo.

2.2.2. ;naspirated vs. aspirated stops

Languages di!er in the values of VOT that they choose as the basic value for anunaspirated or an aspirated stop. Let us consider for simplicity just the velar stops inthese 18 languages. Fig. 9 shows the complete set of values for both aspirated andunaspirated velar stops, a total of 25 mean values. It would be possible to draw anarbitrary line at, say, 50 ms, and suggest that this separates aspirated from unaspiratedstops. But it is not at all clear that there are just two phonetic categories from whichlanguages can choose. The data do not lend themselves to a statistical clumpingprocedure, but it would certainly be plausible to say that there are four phoneticcategories, one around 30 ms representing unaspirated stops, another around 50 ms forslightly aspirated stops, a third for aspirated stops at around 90 ms, and a fourth for thehighly aspirated stops of Tlingit and Navajo.

There does not seem to be any phonological reason why there might be four groups assuggested. They do not re#ect di!erences dependent on the number of contrasts invoicing that each language has. BanawaH , for example, has only a single velar stop, withno contrast in voicing; the mean VOT for this stop is 44 ms, placing it in the secondgroup. But both Western and Eastern Aleut also have only one velar stop; their meanvalues are 78 and 95 ms, making them fully aspirated stops. Similarly, it does not matterwhether a language contrasts voiceless unapirated stops with aspirated stops. Both

Figure 9. Mean VOTs (ms) for velar stops across languages. The rectanglesenclose four regions, representing what might be called unaspirated stops, slightlyaspirated stops, aspirated stops and highly aspirated stops.

<ariations and universals in <O! 223

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Summary

Key Concepts

Ingressive/Egressive airflow

Pulmonic airstream mechanisms

Glottalic airstream mechanisms (ejectives, implosives)

Velaric airstream mechanisms (clicks)

Constraints on combining other gestures with various airstreammechanisms.

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Page 32: Airstream mechanisms and VOT

Summary

Cho, T. and Ladefoged, P. (1999). Variation and universals in VOT: evidence from 18languages. Journal of Phonetics, 27:207–229.

Ladefoged, P. and Johnson, K. (2011). A Course in Phonetics. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning,6th edition.

Maddieson, I. (2013). Glottalized consonants. In Haspelmath, M., Dryer, M., Matthew, S., Gil,D., and Comrie, B., editors, The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, chapter 7.Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, Accessed on 2/10/2014.

Nagano-Madsen, Y. and Thornell, C. (2012). Acoustic properties of implosives in BantuMpiemo. FONETIK, pages 1–4.

Thomas-Vilakati, K. D. (2010). Coproduction and Coarticulation in IsiZulu Clicks, volume 144of University of California Publications in Linguistics. University of California Press.

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