Context-dependent articulation of consonant gemination in Estonian

Helen Türk,Pärtel Lippus,Juraj Šimko

doi:10.5334/labphon.117

Helen Türk, Pärtel Lippus + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.117

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Abstract

The three-way quantity system is a well-known phonological feature of Estonian. In a number of studies it has been shown that quantity is realized in a disyllabic foot by the stressed-to-unstressed syllable rhyme duration ratio and also by pitch movement as the secondary cue. The stressed syllable rhyme duration is achieved by combining the length of the vowel and the coda consonant, which enables minimal septets of CVCV-sequences based on segmental duration. In this study we analyze articulatory (EMA) recordings from four native Estonian speakers producing all possible quantity combinations of intervocalic bilabial stops in two vocalic contexts (/ɑ-i/ vs. /i-ɑ/). The analysis shows that kinematic characteristics (gesture duration, spatial extent, and peak velocity) are primarily affected by quantity on the segmental level: Phonologically longer segments are produced by longer and larger lip closing gestures and, in reverse, shorter and smaller lip opening movements. Tongue transition gesture is consistently lengthened and slowed down by increasing consonant quantity. In general, both kinematic characteristics and inter-gestural coordination are influenced by non-linear interactions between segmental quantity levels as well as vocalic context.

Highlights

In the present paper we investigate the articulatory characteristics of the realization of the phonological quantity contrast in Estonian
The tongue movement towards the first vowel is coproduced with either /p/ or /t/ as well represents one of the two possible transitions between vocalic segments. For each of these gestures, we only report data pertaining to three ‘raw’ kinematic characteristics: Duration and spatial extent of each gesture, and peak velocity
Lip closing The results for the lip closing gesture are shown in Figure 2 with the duration (x-axis) and displacement (y-axis) depicted in the upper three panels and the measures for the peak velocity at the bottom

Summary

Introduction

In the present paper we investigate the articulatory characteristics of the realization of the phonological quantity contrast in Estonian. In terms of quantity and context sensitivity, we study the temporal coordination between the bilabial lip movement and the coproduced inter-vocalic transition. Investigators comparing articulatory patterns associated with the production of phonologically short and long segments report several regularities in kinematic characteristics reflecting this primary phonetic cue. It should be noted that previous studies use different measurement procedures and linguistic material which can be the cause of variability in the findings. This might suggest that the phonological contrast is not clearly manifested in articulatory patterns across various contexts. Our study has partly been inspired by these differences

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