Quasi-phonemic vowels in Ampenan Sasak: An acoustic analysis

Abstract

Phonological studies on Sasak tend to agree that Sasak has a six-vowel system /i, u, e, o, ə, a/ (Archangeli et al., n.d.; Chahal, 1998; Jacq, 1998). However, in Ampenan Sasak, a dialect spoken in the provincial capital of Mataram, it is difficult to attribute vowel quality differences of tense mid-vowels [e, o] and lax mid-vowels [ɛ, ɔ] to allophonic variation of underlying phonemes /e, o/. While lax mid-vowels tend to appear in heavy syllables and tense mid-vowels appear in light syllables (see also Archangeli et al., n.d.), there are exceptions (e.g., /baɾeh/ late, /əmbong/ reservoir) and several minimal pairs (e.g., /bəɾəmbok/ discuss, /bəɾəmbɔk/ breathe; /koboʔ/ levening, /kɔbɔʔ/ play with water). Further, speakers’ intuitions about these distinctions are unreliable. In order to understand this relationship, we elicited wordlists across 13 female speakers of Ampenan Sasak aged 18 to 48. Wordlists were balanced for syllable weight, coda segment, and syllable position and subjected to acoustic analysis. Preliminary results show that the quality of the vowel is highly affected by the weight of the syllable and the coda segment. This suggests that mid-vowels are quasi-phonemic in Ampenan Sasak (Ladd 2013). While they generally behave as allophones, this paradigm is not strictly followed.Phonological studies on Sasak tend to agree that Sasak has a six-vowel system /i, u, e, o, ə, a/ (Archangeli et al., n.d.; Chahal, 1998; Jacq, 1998). However, in Ampenan Sasak, a dialect spoken in the provincial capital of Mataram, it is difficult to attribute vowel quality differences of tense mid-vowels [e, o] and lax mid-vowels [ɛ, ɔ] to allophonic variation of underlying phonemes /e, o/. While lax mid-vowels tend to appear in heavy syllables and tense mid-vowels appear in light syllables (see also Archangeli et al., n.d.), there are exceptions (e.g., /baɾeh/ late, /əmbong/ reservoir) and several minimal pairs (e.g., /bəɾəmbok/ discuss, /bəɾəmbɔk/ breathe; /koboʔ/ levening, /kɔbɔʔ/ play with water). Further, speakers’ intuitions about these distinctions are unreliable. In order to understand this relationship, we elicited wordlists across 13 female speakers of Ampenan Sasak aged 18 to 48. Wordlists were balanced for syllable weight, coda segment, and syllable position and subjected to aco...