Consonantal timing and release burst acoustics distinguish multiple coronal stop place distinctions in Wubuy (Australia).

Abstract

Substantial research has established that place of articulation of stop consonants (labial, alveolar, velar) are reliably differentiated using a number of acoustic measures such as closure duration, voice onset time (VOT), and spectral measures such as centre of gravity and the relative energy distribution in the mid-to-high spectral range of the burst. It is unclear, however, whether such measurable acoustic differences are present in multiple place of articulation contrasts among coronal stops. This article presents evidence from the highly endangered indigenous Australian language Wubuy, which maintains a 4-way coronal stop place contrast series in all word positions. The authors examine the temporal and burst characteristics of / t̪ t ʈ/ in three prosodic positions (utterance-initial, word-initial but phrase medial, and word-medial). The results indicate that VOT, closure duration, and the spectral quality of the burst may indeed differentiate multiple coronal place contrasts, in most positions, although measures that distinguish the apical contrast in absolute initial position remain elusive. The authors also examine measures (spectrum kurtosis, spectral tilt) previously used in other studies of multiple coronals in Australian languages. These results suggest that the authors' measures perform at least as well as those previously applied to multiple coronals in other Australian languages.