Abstract
This study examines the effects of stress on the stop burst in five languages differing in number of places of articulation, as reflected in burst duration, spectral centre of gravity, and spectral standard deviation. The languages studied are English (three places of articulation /p t k/), the Indonesian language Makasar (four places /p t c k/), and the Central Australian languages Pitjantjatjara, Warlpiri (both five places /p t ʈ c k/), and Arrernte (six places /p t t ʈ c k/). We find that languages differ in how they manifest stress on the consonant, with Makasar not showing any effect of stress at all, and Warlpiri showing an effect on burst duration, but not on the spectral measures. For the other languages, the velar /k/ has a “darker” quality (i.e., lower spectral centre of gravity), and/or a less diffuse spectrum (i.e., lower standard deviation) under stress; while the alveolar /t/ has a “lighter” quality under stress. In addition, the dental /t/ has a more diffuse spectrum under stress. We suggest that this involves enhancement of the features [grave] and [diffuse] under stress, with velars being [+grave] and [–diffuse], alveolars being [–grave], and dentals being [+diffuse]. We discuss the various possible spectral effects of enhancement of these features. Finally, in the languages with five or six places of articulation, the stop burst is longer only for the palatal /c/ and the velar /k/, which have intrinsically long burst durations, and not for the anterior coronals /t t ʈ/, which have intrinsically short burst durations. We suggest that in these systems, [burst duration] is a feature that separates these two groups of consonants.
Highlights
In this paper we consider the effects that lexical stress can have on the same consonants in different languages
We examined the effect of lexical stress on the spectral and temporal properties of stop bursts in Pitjantjatjara (Tabain & Butcher, 2015a)
One Arrernte speaker was recorded to reel-to-reel tape by author GB at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) radio studio in Alice Springs in the early 1980s; and two Arrernte speakers and three Pitjantjatjara speakers were recorded by author MT in professional-grade recording studios, direct to computer under the supervision of a professional recording technician
Summary
In this paper we consider the effects that lexical stress can have on the same consonants in different languages. In particular we are concerned with whether the effect of lexical stress on individual consonants is moderated by the overall make-up of the phoneme inventory. To this end, we focus on the oral stop burst, in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-place systems. We compare the well-studied 3-place stop system of English /p t k/ with the 4-place system of the Indonesian language Makasar /p t c k/, with the 5- and 6-place systems of three Central Australian languages—Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri /ptʈck/ and Arrernte /p tt ʈ c k/.
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