Place of articulation effects on voice onset time and phonation bleed persist in languages with no voicing distinction

Abstract

Place of articulation effects on voice onset time (VOT) and phonation bleed in the closure of oral stops has been observed in languages which utilize these as perceptual correlates to voicing distinctions (Lisker & Abramson, 1967; Ohala & Riordan, 1979). In this study, measurements from intervocalic oral stops were collected from three No Voicing Distinction (NVD) languages, Bardi (ISO-639 bcj), Arapaho (ISO-639 arp), and North Puebla Nahuatl (ISO-639 ncj). Tokens surfacing with positive VOT increased in duration as place of articulation went from more anterior to dorsal. VOT for Arapaho coronal oral stops was longer on average than velar orals stops. Nahuatl showed a similar pattern, with average VOT increasing from labial to coronal to velar. Average VOT for Arapaho labial tokens and all Bardi tokens was negative, so they were not included in VOT measurements. Conversely, average duration of phonation bleed in all three languages was greatest for labial oral stops, decreasing in average duration for coronals and velars. This suggests a physiological effect of vocal tract volume on both VOT and maintenance of phonation during the closure of an oral stop even in the absence of a phonological distinction.