Within-category variation in production of Hindi and English stop consonants

Abstract

This paper addresses the broad question of how phonological structure affects phonetic production using within-category variation of multiple phonetic cues in Hindi and English stop consonants. The intuitive hypothesis, formalized in Dispersion Theory (Lindblom, 1986) is that languages that have more phonological contrasts along a single phonetic dimension should have relatively less within-category variation along that dimension. Hindi (four stop contrasts per place of articulation) speakers are therefore predicted to exhibit less within-category variation in production relative to English (two contrasts per place) speakers. This was observed in the results of Hauser (2016) who examined VOT variation of voiceless aspirated stops in these languages. The present study builds on those results and examines F0 as a second cue to the voicing contrast. The F0 results do not conform to the prediction that Hindi speakers should exhibit less variation. There was no difference in F0 variation between the Hindi and English speakers, yet there were significant differences in the amount of within-category F0 variation among the individual Hindi speakers (Levene’s Test p < 0.001). It is argued that this is because F0 acts as a secondary cue to the voicing contrast. Speakers can exhibit greater and individualized levels of variability in F0 without adding perceptual confusion because the primary cue (VOT) remains distinct.