An acoustic examination of laterals in Lower Sorbian

Abstract

This study is an acoustic examination of laterals in Lower Sorbian, an endangered language spoken in eastern Germany. Acoustic data for two dialects of Lower Sorbian (one with the dark lateral and one which underwent the sound change to /w/; both have a clear lateral, /l/) was collected and analyzed using a SSANOVA to examine temporal characteristics of these sounds. The findings suggest that there is a difference in the gestural timing between the clear and dark lateral in word initial and final positions. The dark lateral has earlier achievement F2-F1 target, suggesting an earlier achievement of the tongue dorsum retraction; F2-F1 remains low throughout the following vowel, suggesting a backing effect. The clear lateral has intensifying F2-F1 suggesting tongue dorsum retraction over the duration, until the onset of the following vowel. The data also suggests that lenition of the tongue tip in the word final position could have been a trigger for the sound change. In word final position, there is also a much higher F3 for /w/, suggesting weaker lip rounding, resulting in a similar F3 frequency and trajectory for the dark lateral. This also suggests a similar vocal tract shape between the dark lateral and /w/.