Two sources of voicing neutralization in Lithuanian

Abstract

This study compares two processes that result in voicing neu tralization in Lithuanian: regressive voicing assimilation in obstruent clusters and final devoicing of obstruents. Acoustic data is analyzed to assess the behavi our of three acoustic cues to obstruent voicing (i.e. closure and preceding vowel duration and voi cing during closure) in both neutralizing environments. The results show that, although both processes result in incomplete voicing neutralization, they us e the acoustic cues differently. This suggests that final devoicing and voicing assimil ation have different acoustic realizations, supporting their analysis as two di fferent processes.