Allophonic variation of Polish vowels in the context of prepalatal consonants

Abstract

Phonetic studies of Polish mention allophonic variation in Polish vowels, in that there is a systematic effect of the prepalatal consonant context. In particular, [u] is fronted, [ɛ] is raised, [a] is fronted and sometimes raised, and [ɔ] is fronted following a prepalatal consonant. Additionally, phonemic [i] is excluded after non-palatalized consonants, and the phonemic [ɨ] does not occur after prepalatals. Although X-ray data for Polish speech production exists from the 50s and 60s, no X-ray images are available of the contextual variants of vowels adjacent to prepalatal consonants. In this study, we present 3-D tongue shapes of the vowels in neutral and prepalatal contexts. The data show a combination of raising and fronting of the tongue body for all front vowels, and also a consistent effect of tongue root advancement.