Voicing contrast in Punjabi Singletons and Geminates

Abstract

Cross-linguistic studies have shown that voiceless geminates are more frequent than voiced geminates (Blevins, 2004). From an articulatory perspective, maintaining voicing and long closure duration in voiced geminates is challenging (Ohala, 1983). Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language, has been reported to contrast voiceless/voiced singletons and geminates. However, it is not known if voiced geminates in Punjabi are completely voiced and how their durational properties differ from voiceless geminates. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the acoustic characteristics of Punjabi voiceless/voiced singleton and geminate stops. Five native speakers of Punjabi participated in the experiment (24-26 years, M= 24.6). The stimuli consisted of nonce words with word-medial (C2) voiceless/voiced singleton and geminate stops (C1V1C2V2). The C2 duration was measured in Praat, by using the broadband spectrograms and visual inspection of the waveforms (Ridouane, 2007). The durational analysis of C2 indicated that unlike voiceless singletons/geminates, voiced singletons/geminates showed complete voicing during the closure phase. These findings differ from Tokyo Japanese where voiced geminates are partially devoiced (Kawahara, 2016). However, voiceless singletons/geminates are slightly longer in duration compared to voiced singletons/geminates. The current study raises questions about the cross-linguistic differences in voiceless/voiced singletons and geminates.