Secondary Articulation Research Articles

Aspects of Avatime phonology

Avatime is one of 14 Central-Togo languages (formerly known as "Togo Remnant Languages") spoken in the Volta Region of Ghana and contiguous areas of Togo. The most striking typological feature of these languages compared to their closest Kwa relatives is the fact that they have active noun class systems. The present paper is a description of Avatime phonology, with emphasis on certain features which have been poorly described and/or are of general linguistic interest. Within the consonant system, Avatime has bilabial fricatives and a full series of labiovelar obstruents, including fricatives. Consonants with following glides are considered to be segment sequences rather than consonants with secondary articulations. The vowel system has nine vowels with [ATR] harmony. Continguous vowels undergo a variety of coalescence processes, which differ depending on morphological context and the specific vowels involved. Modem Avatime requires an analysis with four contrasting level tones. However, many instances of two of these tones (the highest level and the lower mid level) are derived through still active processes. One feature of the tone system not previously described is the presence of glottal stop following a syllable bearing non-low tone when that syllable falls at a phonological phrase boundary.

An acoustic-phonetic underspecificationaccount of Marshallese vowel allophony

Marshallese exhibits systematic restrictions in the distribution of its phonetic vowels; surface variation along the front-back dimension is contextually determined by the secondary articulations associated with the surrounding consonants in CVC contexts. An underspecification account of this vowel allophony is considered in which the absence of phonological front-back features associated with the vowels persists phonetically. The vocalic F 2 trajectory associated with the hypothetically underspecified front-back features is phonetically derived without reference to a vocalic F 2 target by interpolation between surrounding consonantal targets across a partially underspecified vowel in an acoustic model. Experiments are described which test the predictions made by the phonetic underspecification account and the feasibility of an alternative fully specified account. The results are argued to support the phonetic underspecification account of Marshallese vowel allophony.

The Historical Development of Secondary Articulation in Gurage

Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on Historical Issues in African Linguistics (1994)

Phonetic underspecification in Marshallese.

The vowels of Marshallese have been analyzed as contrasting only along the height dimension, variation along the front–back dimension being predictable by the secondary articulations of adjacent consonants. Spectrographic evidence suggests this analysis is correct and that the surface allophones can be derived by interpolating between C1 and C2 targets across a vowel that is unspecified for F2. To test this hypothesis, /C1VC2/ words (Cn={/pj/, /pveeswirl/, /tj/, /tveeswirl/} and V={/schwa/, /barred eye/, /a/}) were recorded from four speakers. Then F2 was measured from vowel onset to offset. Preliminary findings based on two of the speakers shows that while F2 variation at the vowel center is statistically significant as a function of vowel category, the proportion of variance accounted for by vowel category is very low compared to that accounted for by the secondary articulation of C1 and C2. This is interpreted as evidence that a vocalic F2 target may not be necessary in modeling the trajectory. Multiple linear regression tests support this interpretation, showing that the vowel midpoint can be accurately predicted without reference to a vowel target. Regression analysis was performed on 15 time-normalized points with and without an intercept k, where k represents an independent vowel contribution to F2. The results show that the contribution of k is negligible (±0.001). Data from the two remaining speakers will be incorporated and discussed in terms of phonetic underspecification in a target-interpolation model.

Perception of Assimilation in Consonants Clusters:A Gestural Model

Abstract The goal of this experiment was to examine the perceptual effects of gestural overlap or coproduction on the first consonant in a cluster. The experiment was conducted using synthetic speech stimuli containing [b#d] and [d#b] consonant clusters in two word phrases. The stimuli were synthesized using an articulatory speech synthesizer according to the linguistic gestural model of Browman and Goldstein. The influence of the relative places of constriction in the cluster and the complexity of the presentation environment are discussed. Two asymmetries with respect to gestural overlap were found. First, assimilation was more readily perceived when C<sub>1</sub> was an alveolar consonant than when C<sub>1</sub> was bilabial. Second, a two-word context encouraged the perception of anticipatory assimilation to a greater degree than an environment in which the second word had been truncated leaving only the acoustic effects of consonantal coproduction on the vowel offset. The results are discussed in terms of the linguistic gestural model with special reference to the application of this framework to the description of assimilation, multiply articulated consonants, and secondary articulations.

Another Look at Coeur d'Alene Harmony

1. Much of the work done on Coeur d'Alene (Salish) since the publication of Reichard's (1938) comprehensive grammar has focused on the analysis of the complex retracting harmonies in this language (Cole 1987:77-103, Johnson 1975, and Sloat 1966; 1971; 1972; 1980). These efforts have resulted in a much clearer picture of the harmony processes than that presented by Reichard but still inadequately explain the data. In this paper, I make use of recent developments in phonological theory to provide a complete account of Coeur d'Alene harmony, demonstrating that what were thought to be irregularities are in fact the result of regular phonological rules applying to underspecified vowels. The analysis depends on a nonterminal Pharyngeal node (McCarthy 1988) in the feature hierarchy (Sagey 1986) which may be used to specify primary or secondary articulation. In 2, I present a brief description of the Coeur d'Alene vowels and the effects of the harmony processes; in 3, I review the various analyses that have been published and discuss the production of retracted segments; in 4, I describe the harmony processes; and in 5, I examine a number of forms that have proved difficult to account for in other analyses.

Prior Instruction, Equivalency Formulas, and Functional Proficiency: Examining the Problem of Secondary School-College Articulation

Prior Instruction, Equivalency Formulas, and Functional Proficiency: Examining the Problem of Secondary School-College Articulation

A Comparison of the Morphology of the Feeding Apparatus in the Peregrine Falcon, Falco-Peregrinus, and the Brown Falcon, F-Berigora (Falconiformes)

The jaw morphology of an 'attacking', specialist predator of birds, the peregrine falcon, Falcon peregrinus, and a 'searching' generalist, the brown falcon F. berigora, were compared. As a result of larger adducting muscles, and an increase in the rotational component of the force of muscles, F. peregrinus potentially has a stronger bite than F. berigora. Kinesis is reduced in F. peregrinus, with a consequent loss in dexterity and fine control. In contrast, F. berigora has a highly kinetic skull and a secondary articulation on the lower mandible, which permits great dexterity and rapid closing of the mandibles. These results establish a strong correlation between the foraging strategy, diet, and the morphology of these two species. They also imply that, as in many bird species, power and kinesis are not compatible within the jaw system.

Vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in Slavic languages

Vowel-to-vowel coarticulation is the interaction of vowels across an intervening consonant. In general, consonants differ in how strong an interaction they permit; in particular, the presence of a secondary articulation on a consonant has been hypothesized to block vowel-to-vowel coarticulation. This hypothesis is tested by comparing coarticulation in three Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Bulgarian) whose phonetic secondary articulations differ in their phonemic status and in their distribution. The three languages are also compared with English. Data consists of F2 measurements at the offset of the first vowel and at the onset of the second vowel in V-stop-V sequences, where the vowels are /i/ and /a/. Analysis of variance shows almost a full range of coarticulatory effects in English and none in Bulgarian, as expected. Against expectations, however, Polish and Russian are intermediate cases, showing coarticulation for some but not all segment sequences. These will be examined to see how the coordination of oral articulations influences measured vowel-to-vowel coarticulation.

Articulatory and acoustic differences between palatal and velar stops

Many experimental studies have shown that velar consonants have a more forward place of articulation in front vowel contexts than in back vowel contexts. On some accounts, such velar fronting is basically the same process as the secondary articulation of palatalization, and furthermore, both “fronted” and “palatalized” velars are equated with the “palatal” cononants of other languages. In this study, velar stops (in English, Russian, Czech, Hungarian) are compared with palatal stops (in Czech, Hungarian) and with palatalized velar stops (in Russian) in different vowel contexts. X-ray and palatographic data from the literature show that palatalized velars are very much like velars in high front vowel context, but that both of these are very different from palatals. Acoustic analysis comparing spectra of consonant release and the following vowel agrees with the articulatory data. It also makes clear that languages with palatals also have fronted velars, differing in the distribution of energy across frequencies. These results indicate that palatalization of velars is phonetically equivalent to fronting, but that neither fronted nor palatalized velars are like the palatal consonants.

ON V-PLACE SPREADING VS. FEATURE SPREADING IN ENGLISH HISTORICAL PHONOLOGY

Since Chomsky and Halle (1968) (henceforth SPE), the representation of secondary articulation on consonants has been achieved by assigning features to these segments which are typically also features used for the representation of vowels. For example, a rounded velar consonant is represented in SPE as a complex of, amongst others, the features [-coronal, -anterior, +round], of which the first two are typically consonantal features, and the last a typically vocalic feature. In languages not employing a distinctive contrast between rounded and non-rounded velars, all velars are simply [-coronal, -anterior] in underlying representation, but may acquire vocalic features like [±back, ±round] ftom adjacent vowels. Recent tree-geometric proposals have preserved this connection. This type of representation predicts that vocalic place features on consonants will interact with 'real' vowels in potentially interesting ways. In this article, we analyse a number of processes from the history of English that show this kind of interaction. In particular, we investigate a very specific theoretical prediction made by current models of feature representation which these processes bear on. This prediction is that feature spreading may take place either at Place node height or at feature height, and is discussed in detail below. It is shown that both types of spreading are in fact attested in the history of English. It is hoped that the discussion of these processes will point the way to other phenomena of the same kind, which may fuel future theoretical innovations.

The emphatic and pharyngeal sounds in Hebrew and in Arabic.

This study addresses physiological, acoustic, and linguistic issues in the production of the emphatic sounds [in text] and the pharyngeal sounds [in text]. Approximately 300 minutes of video recordings were obtained from nine Hebrew and Arabic speakers, using a fiberscope positioned in the upper pharynx and simultaneous audio recording through an external microphone. We also studied a cineradiographic film of three Arabic speakers. Results clearly show that all the emphatic sounds, when pronounced as such, share pharyngealization as a secondary articulation. A constriction is formed between the pharyngeal walls and the tip of the epiglottis, which tilts backwards. To a lesser degree, the lower part of the root of the tongue is also retracted. The data show that all the emphatic and pharyngeal sounds we studied are made with qualitatively the same pharyngeal constriction. However, the pharyngeal constriction is more extreme and less variable for the pharyngeal sounds, where it is the primary articulation, than for the emphatic sounds, where it is a secondary articulation. Because the same sort of pharyngealization is seen for all the emphatics, we use a common notational symbol, [in text], for all of them, including [in text] in place of /q/. We note that where pharyngeals and pharyngealized sounds were realized, the Hebrew and Arabic speakers produced them in essentially the same way.

The Margi vowel system and labiocoronals

The vowel system of Margi, described by Hoffman [1963] as containing three high vowels and one low vowel, is reinterpreted as a two-vowel system with underlying contrast only of high versus low. A pervasive contrast of secondary articulations on consonants spreads features of rounding and backness to contiguous vowels, giving rise to the different high vowel qualities recognized by Hoffman. A morphological role for the secondary articulations can be identified. Given this new understanding of the vowel system, the claim that "labio-coronal" elements in Margi are single complex segments requires reevaluation. Arguments advanced by Sagey [1986] are shown to proceed from a wrong interpretation of a syncope process and an assumed underlying contrast between high vowels. Phonetic data and the absence of phonological arguments to the contrary suggest that the labiocoronal elements are consonant sequences. 1.

Quantitative characterization of degree of coarticulation in CV tokens

Languages are often assumed to show greater or lesser degrees of coarticulation [P. Ladefoged, in Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics in Memory of Pierre Delattre, edited by A. Waldman (Mouton, The Hague, 1972), pp. 273–286], yet no quantitative measure exists for characterizing degree of coarticulation. In this study, the development of a metric for degree of influence of a vowel on a preceding stop consonant has been undertaken. For each language in the study, LPC spectra were made at the burst onset of initial stops followed by a vowel. Templates were made of these spectra when the vowel was /a/. The stop spectra with other vowels were tested against these templates to determine a percent fit. Languages differ in their percent fit; a low percent fit indicates that vowels have a great effect on preceding consonants and a high percent fit indicates that they do not. Kana, a language of Nigeria which gives the auditory impression of having a high degree of coarticulation, is being compared to other languages including Russian, a language with secondary articulations. [Work supported by NSF.]

Coarticulation in VCV sequences in Arabic

Vowel‐to‐vowel coarticulation in VCV utterances has been the subject of several studies. Ohman [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 39, 151–168 (1966)] found that vowels in VCV utterances in English and Swedish have some transconsonantal effect on one another. He also found some evidence suggesting that secondary articulation features, like palatalization in Russian, block coarticulation. Action theorists, such as Fowler [J. Exp. Phon. Gen. 112, 386–412 (1983)], explain V‐to‐V coarticulation in terms of timing; that is, they claim that vowels in speech production are underlyingly overlapping and consonants ride on top of the vowels. This suggestion implies that intervocalic consonants, whether they have secondary features or not, do not block coarticulation. Keating [UCLA WPP 62, 1–13 (1985)], on the other hand, explains it in terms of autosegmental phonology. She places the features for vowels and consonants on two separate tiers, and leaves consonants unspecified for vowel features, so that V‐to‐V coarticulation affects an interpolation between vowel targets. Keating's model implies that consonants that have secondary articulation (i.e., vowel features) must block coarticulation. A preliminary analysis of VCV utterances in Arabic shows that pharyngealized consonants indeed tend to block coarticulation, a finding which supports Keating's prediction over Fowler's.

Exchange and Alienation in the "Jajmani" System

Criticisms are given both of early attempts to define the jajmani system in South Asia on the basis of selected attributes and of recent attempts to dismiss the concept altogether. An alternative approach is constructed using the example of the distribution of pottery in a Malwa village. This approach examines the tendency towards fixity in the exchange of services and its relation to the market. The assumption that jajmani is a traditional system undermined by monetization is questioned. Several other approaches are reexamined and shown to emphasize the secondary articulation of formal exchange with other aspects of village social organization. A more general analysis follows recent work on the Kula in suggesting that systems of embedded exchange may be understood as a praxis which ameliorates the alienation intrinsic to circulation, which in the case of jajmani may be fostered both by the division of labor and by monetization.

Coarticulation across secondary articulations

Consonants with secondary articulations, which involve simultaneous consonant and vowel‐like articulations, are found as contextual allophones in many languages and as independent phonemes in some languages. These consonants show special behavior with respect to vowel‐to‐vowel coarticulation, as determined from acoustic measurements. Phonemic secondary articulations in stops, fricatives, and liquids of Russian, Bulgarian, and Arabic generally block any vowel‐to‐vowel influence across the consonant. However, contextual secondary articulations in Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, and English generally propagate extreme effects of one vowel onto the other. Both of these differ from the usual coarticulation across consonants without secondary articulations. These results can be accounted for if we distinguish the representations of phonemic secondary articulations (as consonants with their own vowel features), from contextual secondary articulations (as consonants acquiring features from adjacent vowels), from lack of secondary articulation (as consonants with no vowel features). Given such a distribution of vowel features, phonetic interpolation can proceed straightforwardly between adjacent feature values.

Ｂａｔｅｍａｎ型人工こ関節の各Ｃｏｍｐｏｎｅｎｔ間の動きについて

The Bateman Universal Proximal Femur is a unique dual bearing femoral head prosthesis. Primary articulation theoretically occurs at the inner bearing and secondary articulation occurs at the outer bearing. So we evaluated clinically the movement of the inner and outer bearing at abduction without bearing weight, using the A-P roentgenogram.Results:1. In most cases, the average degrees of the inner bearing motion is slightly more than that of the outer bearing motion, but the inner bearing motion is less than the outer bearing motion in the following cases: old patients, patients with clinically bad findings and short post-operative durations.2. Outer head motion occurs at 10 degrees abduction under the theoretical limits of the inner bearing motion.

Note on work in progress: secondary articulation in Thai stops

The present paper outlines the system of obstruents in Modern Central Thai and points out various controversial issues having to do with laryngeal control and supralaryngeal secondary articulation. Some very preliminary findings concerning Thai /p t/ are mentioned, and it is shown with fiberoptic illustrations how the epiglottis is crucially involved in an articulatory gesture found with these consonants in certain environments.

On the description of multiply-articulated consonants

The choice of a point of articulation for a given sound involves the isolation of one region of the vocal tract as fundamental, despite the fact that significant articulatory activity may be taking place elsewhere as well. It is usually assumed that primary and secondary articulation can be distinguished by relative degree of occlusion; this is impossible, however, in multiply-articulated stops ([kp, gb] etc.), spirants, and glides (including [w]). Evidence is reviewed that suggests that even in these cases one or the other occlusion should be regarded as primary. In some languages, “labial-velars” function as labials; in others, as velars. In at least one language, Fula, labial and velar types are in contrast. In none of these cases, however, need there be any phonetic distinction associated with the contrast. A segment’s phonological behavior within the language may be the only indication of its character. From these facts, we conclude that (1) the traditional distinction of primary and secondary articulation is valid even for segments with more than one occlusion of the same degree; and (2) at least some descriptive phonetic parameters cannot be determined directly from an inspection of the phonetic substance, but only from the consideration of alternations and related forms.