Multilingualism and acoustic correlates of breathiness and tone in Kuy

Abstract

Previous work on tonogenesis has focused primarily on intergenerational differences in cue weighting (Kang 2014, Coetzee et al. 2018) and less so on other sociolinguistic and language usage factors (though see Brunelle 2009). The current study explores the relationship of these variables with acoustic measures of voice quality (H1*-H2*, H1*-A1*, H1*-A2*, H1*-A3*, CPP, F1, f0) in a modal-breathy distinction in 63 speakers of Kuy, a minority language of Thailand. Kuy speakers are historically quadrilingual in Kuy, Thai, Lao, and Khmer, but recent centralization of Thailand has led to greater Thai usage. Because Thai is tonal and lacks a voice quality distinction, speakers who use Thai more are hypothesized to weigh f0 moreheavily and other breathiness measures less heavily. We find that f0 differences are significantly larger for speakers who use Thai more, while H1*-H2*, H1*-A1*, H1*-A2*, and H1*-A3* differences are slightly, but significantly, smaller. F1 shows no effect. Unexpectedly, CPP differences are also significantly larger for speakers who use Thai more. The results suggest that increasing Thai bilingualism plays a role in shifting voice quality cue weights and, in particular, in increasing f0 cue weights, providing one mechanism by which bilingualism in a tonal language may help catalyze tonogenesis.