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Sorbian, Lower: a language of Germany
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: SIL International, 2018
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Sorbian, Upper: a language of Germany
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: SIL International, 2018
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A Phonetic Examination of Rhotics: Gestural Representation Accounts for Phonological Behaviour
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Abstract:
There is phonological evidence that rhotics form a natural class of sounds (Walsh-Dickey, 1997). However, the articulatory and acoustic properties that are common across all rhotics have been difficult to identify (Lindau, 1985; Ladefoged Maddieson, 1996), creating a disconnect between phonetics and phonology. This thesis argues that the natural class of rhotics is united through articulatory and acoustic-perceptual characteristics. Five studies were conducted: an acoustic examination of Upper and Lower Sorbian uvular (/ʀ ʀj/) and alveolar rhotics (/r rj/), two ultrasound studies of the uvular rhotics in Upper Sorbian, an ultrasound study of variably realized rhotics ([ɾ ɻ ɹ ʁ χ]) in Brazilian Portuguese, and a perceptual study of rhotics by native English speakers. The rhotics in Sorbian and Brazilian Portuguese all differ in place/manner configurations but were found to be united by the occurrence of a tongue root gesture coordinated with a tongue tip or body gesture. These findings are consistent with previous studies of rhotics which show a secondary pharyngeal constriction (Delattre, 1971; Sproat Fujimura, 1993). The articulatory findings suggest that the synchronic variation and diachronic changes of rhotics in Brazilian Portuguese result from the manipulation of the settings of the tongue gestures in the underlying representation. Palatalization in Upper Sorbian revealed antagonistic gestures for rhotic articulation and secondary palatalization, suggesting that rhotics’ avoidance of secondary palatalization is related to tongue root constraints (Kavitskaya, Iskarous, Noiray, Proctor, 2009). The perceptual experiment revealed an underlying similarity in perception between the rhotics examined, /r ɻ ʀ/. The perceptual similarities were interpreted as the result of a similarity in F2. The perceptual similarity is also argued to be the reason why large rhotic inventories are cross-linguistically avoided and for the reason the cross-linguistic distribution of rhotics and laterals is also different. Inventories with more than 2 rhotics and no laterals do not exist, while inventories of laterals up to and including 6 different segments and no rhotics, do exist (Maddieson, 1984). This disparity between the two types of liquids is argued to be related to the perceptual difficulty associated with identifying rhotic segments across place and manner differences. ; Ph.D.
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Keyword:
0290; Articulatory Phonology; Brazilian Portuguese; Phonetics; Phonology; Sorbian; Speech Perception
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/92003
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