Abstract
Velar lateral sounds are rare and their acoustics and contextual effects are understudied. Positional variants of velar laterals are also rarely reported. This paper documents a previously unknown allophony pattern of the velar lateral in Mee (Trans New Guinea; Indonesia), based on an elicitation study with two speakers and a controlled set of recordings from one of the speakers. Our main dataset included carrier phrase recordings of Mee words with the velar lateral, representing the diverse set of contexts where the velar lateral occurs. Our acoustic findings suggest that the Mee velar lateral is realized as a laterally released velar stop [ɡᶫ] before front vowels, and with uvular closure followed by a fricative release [ɢʁ] before back vowels. In line with this description, we found differences in the second formant of the preceding vowel and the periodicity of the release for the two allophones. We explore the implications of our findings for the typology of velar laterals.
Highlights
Velar laterals are a rare class of sounds that involve posterior closure and lateral release (Ladefoged, Cochran & Disner 1977, Blevins 1994, FranCois 2010)
Our study has provided new phonetic data on the realization of velar lateral in Mee, based on elicitations with two speakers and on a controlled acoustic study with one of the speakers
Our elicitation data support our initial hypothesis that the Mee velar lateral has two allophones distributed according to the following vowel frontness
Summary
Velar laterals are a rare class of sounds that involve posterior closure and lateral release (Ladefoged, Cochran & Disner 1977, Blevins 1994, FranCois 2010). Little is known about the exact realization of velar laterals, and the existing phonetically detailed descriptions mostly pertain to the sounds that pattern as sonorants phonologically (Ladefoged et al 1977, Steed & Hardie 2004, FranCois 2010). The aim of this paper is to document the realization of a velar laterally released stop in Mee (iso: ekg; a.k.a. Ekari, Ekagi, Kapauku) – a Paniai Lakes Nuclear Trans New Guinea language spoken in the Indonesian part of Papua New Guinea (Doble 1962, 1987; Steltenpool 1969; Hyman & Kobepa 2013). Diphthongs pattern according to the backness of their first member Our exact predictions for the acoustic study are detailed below, based on the existing studies of velar vs. uvular distinction and of lateral acoustics in general
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