A Phonetic Study of Final Vowel Lengthening in Chickasaw

Abstract

This paper explores patterns of length in domain‐final vowels in Chickasaw, a Western Muskogean language of south‐central Oklahoma. Vowel duration is correlated with constituent size such that vowels in final position of larger domains are longer than vowels in final position of smaller domains. The correlation between domain size and duration is observed for both phonemic short and long vowels, thereby ensuring that the contrast in length is preserved in all contexts. Final vowel duration is further shown to be blind to metrical structure: all final vowels undergo lengthening regardless of whether or not they occur in strong position of a disyllabic iambic foot. Final lengthening thus preserves the canonical iambic foot template in which stressed syllables are heavy. Word‐medial lengthening and word‐final lengthening are, however, different in nature. Unlike medial vowels, final vowels characteristically end in a breathy phase, where the duration of breathiness is correlated with domain size.