Laryngeal contrasts in Hadza occlusives

Abstract

Laryngeal contrasts in consonants are found in nearly all languages. Two-way laryngeal contrasts are common in western European languages, and three- and four-way systems are attested, for example, in many South Asian languages. The current study presents acoustic data on laryngeal contrasts in Hadza, a language isolate spoken by ∼1200 people (Brian Wood, pc.) in Tanzania. Hadza contains multiple complex consonant types, including clicks and ejectives, as well as aspiration and prenasalization. Some previous descriptions suggested a three-way contrast in stops (e.g., /t tʰ d/) and affricates (e.g., t⌢s t⌢sʰ d⌢z), and also a two-way contrast in clicks (e.g., /! !ʰ/) (Tucker et al., 1977; de Voogt, 1992), but did not offer corroborating phonetic evidence. Sands et al. (1996) documented the expected distinction in Voice Onset Time (VOT) between voiceless unaspirated and aspirated stops, but they did not find VOT differences for clicks or affricates. Using wordlist data collected in 2022, this study presents temporal measurements, including VOT, to examine the phonetic properties of laryngeal contrasts in Hadza occlusives and, especially, to evince an aspiration contrast in affricates and clicks previously unsubstantiated in the literature. These results resolve discrepancies between past research and further elucidate the laryngeal system of Hadza.