Dependence of a Vowel Quality on the Position in a Word

Dependence of a Vowel
Quality on the Position in
a Word
Summer School
“Variation in Speech Production and Perception ”
August 10 - 16, 2008, Kuressaare, Estonia
Juris Grigorjevs
jugrig@latnet.lv
Material
In spring of 1993 the material for the research of Latvian vowels
was designed, so that each of Latvian monophthongs and diphthongs appeared in real Latvian words in each of four possible
positions:
Word initial position (stressed);
Non-initial first syllable position (stressed);
The 2nd syllable position of three-syllabic word (unstressed);
Word final position (unstressed).
All the words with target vowels were embedded into two types of
carrier phrases: “Saka ___ tam” and “Lai ___ nav!”.
E.g.: “Saka itin tam.”, “Saka titāns tam.”, “Saka subtitri tam.” etc.
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Material
The speech material was recorded in pronunciation of 25 informants
(20 males and 5 females) – all native speakers of Latvian in the age
from 18 to 65 years.
During the academic year 1993/1994 the recorded material was
analyzed using the equipment of Phonetic lab at the Institute of
Linguistics, Stockholm University.
The first four formant frequencies and durations were measured for
monophthongs, but for diphthongs – the first four formant frequencies
of both components, as well as the total duration of a diphthong and
the duration of a transition between the steady states of its components.
This report is based on the data of vowels produced by 20 male
speakers*.
* Although these data are from 1994 they haven’t been published yet.
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Long monophthongs in the word-initial position
2
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Short monophthongs in the word-initial position
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Long monophthongs in the 1st-syllable position
3
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Short monophthongs in the 1st-syllable position
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Long monophthongs in the mid-of-the-word position
4
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Short monophthongs in the mid-of-the-word position
F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Long monophthongs in the word-final position
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F2'/F1 space of monophthongs
Short monophthongs in the word-final position
F2'/F1 space of diphthongs
Diphthongs in the word-initial position vs. isolated monophthongs
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F2'/F1 space of diphthongs
Diphthongs in the 1st-syllable position vs. isolated monophthongs
F2'/F1 space of diphthongs
Diphthongs in the mid-of-the-word position vs. isolated monophthongs
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F2'/F1 space of diphthongs
Diphthongs in the word-final position vs. isolated monophthongs
Conclusions
• The quality of the 1st component of diphthongs produced in stressed
positions is similar to the quality of corresponding long
monophthongs, but the quality of the 2nd component is revealing
target undershoot, except for diphthongs /iu/ and /ie/;
• The quality of the 1st and the 2nd component of diphthongs produced
in unstressed positions differs from the quality of corresponding long
monophthongs revealing the acoustic centralization and greater
influence of the neighbouring sounds;
• The vowel space for diphthongs is more reduced in the dimension of
F1 (corresponding to the tongue height) than the dimension of F2
(reflecting the horizontal movement of tongue), that could be
explained by reduced jaw movement in thus leaving the judgment
about the diphthong quality to rely mainly upon the shift in formant
values and the direction of formant changes.
Juris Grigorjevs
jugrig@latnet.lv
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