Abstract
This paper examines the phonetic interactions of tone and voice qualities in Sylheti. Data from six native speakers are examined to understand the voice qualities of the vowels carrying contrastive tones. The results identify three spectral measures (viz., H1*–H2*, H1*–A2*, and H1*–A3*) and one noise measure (viz., CPP) as reliable indicators of modal (or in the continuum of modal to tense) vs. breathy (or, in the continuum of breathy to lax) phonation contrasts in the vowels carrying high and low tone, respectively. Finally, a statistical model is proposed that predicts consistent phonation contrasts across the total duration of the contrastive tones.
Highlights
Phonation or voice quality refers to the production of speech sounds by the vibration of vocal folds (Ladefoged 1971; Silverman et al 1995; Gordon 2001; Wayland and Jongman 2002; Esposito and Khan 2020)
Voice quality distinctions or phonation types among phonemes are exploited in many world languages to preserve lexical contrasts
The primary objective of this paper is to examine the phonetic interactions of the vowels carrying contrastive tones1 in terms of f0 variations and voice qualities in Sylheti
Summary
Phonation or voice quality refers to the production of speech sounds by the vibration of vocal folds (Ladefoged 1971; Silverman et al 1995; Gordon 2001; Wayland and Jongman 2002; Esposito and Khan 2020). The primary objective of this paper is to examine the phonetic interactions of the vowels carrying contrastive tones (viz., high and low) in terms of f0 variations and voice qualities in Sylheti. The following research questions are examined in this paper: (i) Does the tonal contrasts in the Sylheti lead to different voice qualities in the vowels (carrying contrastive tones)? Irregular vibration associated with creaky and tense phonations and noise due to turbulent airflow in breathy and lax phonations generally associate lower CPP values in all the non-modal phonations than modal phonation In languages such as Hmong, Mazatec, and Yi, phonation contrasts are identified through the CPP measure (Keating et al 2010). The following section discusses the experimental design, the methods adopted for the acoustic analysis, and the statistical tests and procedures employed for the current experiment
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