Duration of Blackfoot /s/.

A comparison of assibilant, affricate, singleton, geminate and

syllabic /s/ in Blackfoot.

Donald Derrick, UBC Linguistics

For: WSCLA 11, UBC, April, 2006

Introduction

• Blackfoot is an Algonquian language primarily spoken in Alberta and Montana

• Blackfoot consonant inventory includes /m, n, p, t, k, ts, ks, s/ in singleton and geminate contrasts.

Introduction• Blackfoot has only the one sibilant: /s/• Blackfoot /s/ appears in many contexts:

– Assibilation• underlying /k/ or /t/ next to an /i/ and across morpheme

boundaries “-” become /ks/ and /ts/ respectively (Frantz & Russel 1991, 1995, Armoskaite & Chávez-Peón, 2005)

[staaxtsɪtsi] staaht-itsiunder-pant "underpant"(F&R 1995:232)(BB 06/02/09)

s t a a* t s I t s i

Time (s)3.83257 5.10649

Introduction

– Affricates• /ks/ or /ts/ within a morpheme (Elfner, 2004)

[ɪstːstsaːpikɪmː] isttsi-tsaapikimmpain-wire/string "barbed wire"(F&R 1995:97) (BB 06/02/01)

i s tt s t s aa p i k I mm

Time (s)2.39934 3.99541

Introduction

– Singletons• does not alter underlying preceding vowel lengths

(Frantz & Russel 1995)

[niːsɪpːo] niis-kiipofour-ten"forty" (F&R, 1995:134) (BB 05/10/12)

n ii s i pp o

Time (s)5.51657 6.53907

Introduction

– Geminates• defined as an /s/ which shortens preceding long vowels

or laxens preceding short vowels (Frantz & Russel 1995)

[ɪsatɛsːi] i-sataisiVERB-offended "become offended!"

(F&R 1995:204) (BB 06/02/01)

i s a t E ss i

Time (s)0.075963 1.30434

Introduction– Syllabic /s/

• defined as elng /s/ preceded by a consonant (Derrick, 2006)

[ʔomʔaksːksːiːnaː] omahk-sskssiinaabiɡ-insect "big insect”(F&R 1995:86) (BB 05/11/29)

o m ? a8 k ss k ss ii n aa

Time (s)6.69156 8.58086

Introduction

– Super-long combinations• defined as spirantizations (affricates) followed by syllabic

/s/ (Derrick, 2006)

[ʔomʔakssːapiaʔtsɪs] omahk-i-ssapia'tsisbig-VERB-telescope "big field glasses"(F&R 1995:85) (BB 06/03/16)

om ? a* k sss a p ia t s I s

Time (s)9.78145 12.4279

Hypotheses1) Blackfoot geminates /s/ and syllabic /s/ will be

the same duration2) Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer than singleton

/s/3) Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be longer than

Blackfoot affricate /s/4) Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be longer than

Blackfoot assibilant /s/5) All Blackfoot /s/’s will be longer when adjacent

to vowels than when adjacent to consonants.

Experiment

• Blackfoot data involving /s/ in all the contexts listed was recorded and /s/ durations were measured in order to test the above 5 hypotheses:

Methods - participant

• One participant (Beatrice Bullshields) provided citation form words containing Blackfoot assibilations, affricates, singletons, geminates, syllabic /s/’s and super-long /s/’s.

• A minimum of 3 tokens from 6 words for 18 measurements was elicited for each form (except ksV - 14 only)

Methods - stimuli

• Forms included: CsssV, CssC, CssV, VssC, CssC, VsV, VsC, tsV, tsC, t-V, ksV, ksC, k-V

• C = Consonant• V = Vowel• sss = affricate + syllabic /s/• ss = geminate or syllabic /s/• s = singleton s• s = affricate• - = assibilation/morpheme boundary

Methods - recording

• Recordings were completed using a Marantz 660 solid-state recorder with a countryman (phantom power) wired lapel microphone.

• Measurements were recorded using text tiers on PRAAT 4.4.0.7 for Mac

• Data was compiled in Excel 2004 for Mac• Statistics were analyzed using JMP IN 5.1 for

Mac

Results - by type

segment length

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

affricate assibilant geminate singleton super-long

syllabic

segment group

Each Pair

Student's t

0.05

affricateassibilantgeminatesingletonsuper-longsyllabic

Level 80 57 38 89 21 73

Number 129.588 102.579 299.632 155.348 381.524 240.233

Mean 6.744 7.990 9.786 6.394

13.163 7.060

Std Error 116.32 86.87

280.39 142.77 355.63 226.35

Lower 95% 142.85 118.29 318.88 167.92 407.41 254.12

Upper 95%

Std Error uses a pooled estimate of error variance

Means for Oneway AnovaLevel Mean super- long A 381.52381 geminate B 299.63158 syllabic C 240.23288 singleton D 155.34831 affricate E 129.58750 assibilant F 102.57895

• All categories significantly different F(5,252) 123, P < 0.0001• Each category is statistically different from each other P < 0.005

Results - by Vowel Adjacency• Vowel adjacency to either edge of a

long /s/ correlates to greater duration• Duration of a geminate /s/ followed by

a consonant is similar to a syllabic /s/ followed by a vowel

• Duration of a consonant bounded syllabic /s/ similar to vowel bounded singleton /s/

• Vowel bounded geminates are much longer than vowel bounded singletons

segment length

100

200

300

400

500

CssC CssV VsV VssC VssV

segment

Each Pair

Student's t

0.05

Results - by Vowel Adjacency

• Singleton /s/ in onset position is 100% longer than singleton /s/ in coda• Affricate /s/ in onset position is 33% shorter than affricate /s/ in coda

segment length

50

100

150

200

250

300

coda onset

position

segment length

50

100

150

200

250

300

coda onset

position

Both results are highly significant (P < 0.0001)

codaonset

Level 45 35

Number 150.067 103.257

Mean 6.3162 7.1619

Std Error 137.49 89.00

Lower 95% 162.64 117.52

Upper 95%

Std Error uses a pooled estimate of error variance

Means for Oneway Anova

codaonset

Level 38 51

Number 91.316

203.059

Mean 6.4081 5.5314

Std Error 78.58

192.06

Lower 95% 104.05 214.05

Upper 95%

Std Error uses a pooled estimate of error variance

Means for Oneway AnovaSingleton

Affricate

Discussion - Hypothesis tests

Hypothesis 1: Blackfoot geminates /s/ and syllabic /s/ will be the same duration

– False - syllabic /s/ is on average 25% shorter than geminate /s/

• long /s/ is approximately 50 ms longer per edge adjacent to a vowel.

Hypothesis 2: Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer than singleton /s/

– True - geminate /s/ is 100% longer than singleton /s/, just like other geminates in Blackfoot

Discussion - Hypothesis testsHypothesis 3: Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be longer

than Blackfoot affricate /s/– True, but not by much - Blackfoot singleton /s/ is about

25% longer than affricate /s/• in onset position, the difference is much greater with

affricate /s/ at mean 103 ms and singleton /s/ at mean 201 ms, or 100% longer.

Hypothesis 4: Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be longer than Blackfoot assibilant /s/

– True, but again not by much - Blackfoot affricate /s/ is about 25% longer than assibilant /s/.

• And, assibilant and affricate /s/ are similar lengths when in onset position.

Discussion - Hypothesis test

Hypothesis 5: All Blackfoot /s/’s will be longer when adjacent to vowels than when adjacent to consonants.

– False, Blackfoot singleton and geminate /s/ are longer when adjacent to vowels, but affricates are shorter when adjacent to vowels

• Slower energy changes on either side of /s/ sounds may correlate with longer durations:

Discussion - Energy Change

• /s/ energy builds slower off of /t/ than /k/ onset. (comparisons to appear in proceedings.)

o m ? ax k ss k ss ii n aa

Time (s)6.69156 8.58086

• /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, quickly into a consonant.

i ss ao k aa s i

Time (s)0.481826 1.67286

• singleton /s/ is shorter and sometimes quieter than geminate /s/.

• singleton /s/ does not reduce preceding vowels.

I ss k ss ii n aa

Time (s)2.82541 4.04091

k i t s i k s i kk a k oo m

Time (s)6.74064 8.48575

• /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, and vowel energy decreases into an /s/

Conclusion• Underlying morphophonology combined with

vowel adjacency jointly predict average duration differences between geminate /s/, syllabic /s/, singleton /s/, and affricate & assibilant /s/

• With geminate and syllabic /s/, vowel adjacency effects are symmetrical

• Assibilant and underlying affricate /s/ have statistically similar duration in onset position

• More speakers and more natural speech must be analyzed to finalize these conclusions

References

Armoskaite, Solveiga and Chávez-Peón, Mario. (2005) "Assibilation in Blackfoot" LING 431/531 Field Methods, UBC

Derrick, Donald (2005) “Blackfoot Geminates.” LING 531, Field Methods, UBC

Derrick, Donald (2006) "Blackfoot phonotactics." NWLC 22, SFU, Burnaby, BC, Canada

Emily Elfner (2004) The Role of Sonority in Blackfoot Phonotactics. Honours thesis, University of Calgary

Frantz , Donald G. (1991) Blackfoot Grammar. University of Toronto Press

Frantz, Donald G. & Norma Jean Russell. (1995) Blackfoot dictionary of stems, roots, and affixes (second edition). University of Toronto Pres

Special thanks to Beatrice Bullshields who provided all the elicitations for any data marked (BB date). Frantz's dictionary provided source material for all such elicitations, but Beatrice Bullshields's productions are used in favor of any dictionary entries.