Voiceless Nasals Research Articles

Acquisition of the feature [+spread glottis] in Icelandic.

The feature [+spread glottis] ([+s.g.]) denotes that a speech sound is produced with a wide glottal aperture with audible voiceless airflow. Icelandic is unusual in the degree to which [+spread glottis] is involved in the phonology: in /h/, pre-aspirated and post-aspirated stops, voiceless fricatives and voiceless sonorants. The ubiquitousness of the feature could potentially affect the rate and process of its acquisition. This paper investigates the development of [+s.g.] in Icelandic, both in general and in a range of contexts, in a cross-sectional study of 433 typically developing Icelandic-speaking children aged two to seven years. As a feature, [+s.g.] is acquired early in Icelandic, although specific sound classes lag behind due to other output constraints. Children reach mastery of [+s.g.] by age three except in word-initial post-aspirated stops and voiceless nasals. Findings are interpreted in light of the literature on the feature and its development.

Variable production of voiceless sonorants in Hakha La

Research on Tibeto-Burman voiceless sonorants often centers on nasals, which are standardly described as having two language-specific phonetic realizations: “voiceless unaspirated” nasals have a period of voicelessness and nasal airflow during closure followed by voicing prior to oral release ([m̥m]), while “voiceless aspirated” nasals have a period of voicelessness and nasal airflow optionally preceded by a voiced period, and voicing following oral release ([(m)m̥ʰ]) (e.g., Bhaskararao and Ladefoged, 1991; Chirkova et al., 2019). Little language-internal inter- or intra-speaker variation has been reported. An exception is South Central Tibeto-Burman (Chin) languages, such as Hakha Lai, in which voiceless nasals reportedly exhibit considerable inter- and intra-speaker variation (Hoffmann, 2018; Ziegler et al., 2022). As thorough investigation of this variation is absent from the existing literature, this paper investigates acoustic data from 9 native speakers of Hakha Lai (3M, 6F). Data for all voiceless sonorants (nasals, lateral, and rhotic) is presented, revealing that: (1) voiceless nasals in Hakha Lai indeed show a high degree of variation in the phasing of laryngeal and supralaryngeal gestures, defying the two-type approach; and (2) this variation extends to voiceless laterals and rhotics, which show similar bi-phasic and even tri-phasic variation.

On plosive-nasal correspondences and alternations in Gyalrongic and their possible solutions

Abstract Gyalrongic languages exhibit a series of non-trivial nasal-plosive (or approximant) correspondences, which so far lack an explanation. Some nasal consonants, mainly found in West Gyalrongic languages, correspond to plosives or approximants in their East Gyalrongic cognates. Long considered irregular, these correspondences have never been studied with the comparative method. This paper tackles these seeming correspondences and makes the first attempt to reconstruct them. I propose a series of voiceless nasals to account for their modern reflexes with various articulation manners, and analyse the plausibility of this reconstruction. I discuss the forms in question vis-à-vis their cognates in other Sino-Tibetan languages that exhibit a nasal. I also compare alternative solutions with the voiceless nasal hypothesis.

Diachronic developments in fricative + nasal sequences

Abstract Through comparison of regular sound correspondences in three closely related Tibeto-Burman (TB) languages, Ersu, Lizu, and Duoxu (collectively “ELD”), informed by external comparison with other TB languages and recent phonetic analyses of the production of voiceless nasals, we reconstruct *fricative-nasal sequences in their common ancestor, Proto-ELD. In the development of these historic clusters, two pathways of change can be recognized. Their difference lies in the divergent relative phasing of velic and oral gestures in the original fricative-nasal sequences: (i) fricative weakening (from a tight cluster): *FN > N̥ > h̃ > x (ii) fricative strengthening (from a loose cluster): *F-n > *F-t > t > k or *F‑n > s The different reflexes observed in Ersu, Lizu, and Duoxu represent different points along these two developmental pathways. These reconstructions and pathways of development have implications for our understanding of both universal (phonetic) and language-specific aspects of change in fricative-nasal sequences. The first pathway makes it possible to explore the process of nasal devoicing beyond voiceless nasals so as to enrich our understanding of nasal devoicing in natural languages. The co-existence of two opposite pathways of change, on the other hand, provides insights into the morphological and syllabic structure of words with contiguous fricative-nasal sequences in ELD languages at different points in time – insights that may be valuable in examining the history of other languages and language families beyond the ELD cluster.

Voiceless nasals in the Ikema dialect of Miyako Ryukyuan

Voiceless nasal consonants are typologically rare in the world’s languages. The present study investigates the acoustic realization of reported voiceless nasals in the Miyako Ryukyuan dialect Ikema. Voiceless nasals in Ikema occur word-initially and word-medially as part of a geminate or consonant cluster, and are phonemically distinct from modal voiced nasals. Initial observation of collected recordings revealed many instances of the voiceless phoneme with voicing throughout, leading to a re-evaluation of previous claims about its phonetic implementation. We hypothesized that word-medial and phrase-medial voiceless nasals surface as breathy voiced nasals. We analyzed the acoustic characteristics of nasal components of target words, focusing on duration, phonation state, and cepstral peak prominence (CPP), to determine whether reported voiceless nasal phonetic components with voicing are acoustically distinct from modal voiced nasal consonants. We find that voiceless nasals are produced with a voiceless component followed by a modal voiced component. Voiceless components and breathy components are found to be significantly shorter than modal components. We also find a significant difference between modal nasal, breathy nasal and voiceless nasal components’ CPP values. The results confirm the observation that Ikema voiceless nasals are phonemically distinct from modal nasal consonants, and likely allophonically vary with breathy voiced nasals word-medially and phrase-medially. These findings align with the hypothesis that voiceless nasals require some voicing to be audible for perception, and are consistent with cross-linguistic findings, contributing to the typological understanding of the acoustics of voiceless nasals.

The segmental phonetics and phonology of Hyow, A Tibeto-Burman language of Bangladesh

Abstract This paper presents a description and analysis of segmental phonetics and phonology of Hyow, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by almost 4,000 people in the southeast of Bangladesh. Hyow demonstrates phonological features which are absent in other Chin languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch. Proto Kuki-Chin initial voiceless nasals are not only preserved in Mara and Central Chin languages (Van Bik 2009: 220), but also in Hyow. Unlike other Southern Chin languages, Hyow final liquids are sometimes preserved or developed into central approximants. In fact, final liquids are preserved in Bangladesh Hyow, and in two varieties of Laitu – Keyni and Myebon – and Laisaw in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. The salient and prevalent phonological process of re-syllabification in Hyow demonstrates that the glottal stop cannot be treated as a phonetic property of the coda-cluster sonorants, which is otherwise treated as glottalized in some Chin languages by scholars, e.g. Hakha Lai (Hyman & Van Bik 2002: 114). Hyow does not show a phonemic contrast between long and short vowels which is very often found in Chin languages. Though Mainland Southeast Asian Languages are profoundly known for having sesquisyllables or reduced syllables, in Hyow, vowels of initial syllables of disyllabic words carrying grammatical morphemes are harmonized with vowels of root-initial syllables, which confirms the absence of such type of reduced syllables in Hyow. The phonological description and analysis in this paper are furthermore supported by phonetic data and illustrations. Discussions of variant phonetic realizations of certain segments have also been included.

Aspiration in voiceless nasals in Angami

Angami or Tenyidie is a Tibeto-Burman language with voicing contrast in nasals. In order to study the voiceless nasals in detail, using the Nasometer II 6450, four Angami speakers were recorded producing the nasal voicing contrasts in isolation and in sentence frames (n = 620). Using nasal and the oral channel data extracted from the Nasometer, amount of voicing, nasalance and duration were measured. The results showed that the voiceless nasals produced in isolation were mostly voiceless with oral aspiration appearing around the middle of the articulation. When produced in sentence frames, an additional voiced nasal portion was noticed at the onset of the voiceless nasal. In terms of nasality, determined by nasalance scores, effect of the place of articulation was observed. It was also noticed that the onset of oral aspiration resulted in reduced nasalance. The voiceless nasals were consistently longer than their voiced counterparts. Generally, when produced in sentence frames, all the nasals were longer, regardless of voicing.

Matter borrowing, pattern borrowing and typological rarities in the Gran Chaco of South America

The present paper explores the intersection between typological rarities, matter borrowing and pattern borrowing in the Gran Chaco of South America. In this region the only two living Zamucoan languages are spoken: Ayoreo and Chamacoco. Zamucoan has been for a long time in contact with the other languages of the area, in particular with the Guaycuruan and Mataguayan families. I analyze some rare features of Zamucoan, which developed through language contact or spread to neighboring languages. The reconstruction of Proto-Zamucoan permits us to understand better what has happened in terms of contact, or to figure out the development of rare characteristics involved in language contact: an example is Chamacoco clusivity, introduced via pattern borrowing. The formation of the Chamacoco first person plural exclusive is unusual; in addition, the pronominal system has acquired a split between a plural and a ‘greater plural’, a pattern borrowing from Nivaĉle (Mataguayan). Some features spread from Chamacoco to Kadiweu (Guaycuruan), two languages with a well-documented story of contact. These are: (i) The affix order in the third person plural of Chamacoco verbs, where number prefix precedes person prefix; (ii) The marking of gender and number of possessive classifiers, found in the Kadiweu classifier for domestic animals. Other unusual features discussed here are voiceless nasals, para-hypotaxis and traces of egophoricity.

Synchronic and diachronic phonology of Lavïa

Abstract Lavïa, spoken in a belt across both sides of the Yunnan-Myanmar border, is an under-researched Wa language falling under the Waic subgroup of Palaungic in the Austroasiatic language family. This study investigates the sound system of Lavïa and traces its development from an ancestral Proto-Wa-Lawa phonological system. Modern Lavïa phonology is characterized by well-preserved sesquisyllablic structure, rich inventories of consonant and vocalic clusters, and lack of phonemic tone or phonation. Diachronically, Lavïa shows widely attested Waic sound changes as well as certain distinctive innovations which, among other things, yielded voiceless nasals and caused huge upheavals in its vocalic system. These diagnostic innovations help define Lavïa’s unique position within the Wa language cluster.

Voiceless Nasals in Welsh

Voiceless Nasals in Welsh

Perception of voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami

This study is a perceptual analysis of place of articulation of voiceless nasals and their voiced counterparts in Mizo and Angami, two Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. The voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami differ in terms of their characteristics of voicing. In Mizo, there is a portion of voiced nasal murmur before the vowel starts, which has been compared to the voiceless nasals in Burmese (Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991). However, in Angami, the nasal murmur remains voiceless throughout (Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991; Blankenship et al.,1993). A previously performed acoustic analysis of cues for place of articulation in both the languages shows that the cues were more robust in the transition portion of the vowel following the voiceless nasal (Gogoi, 2018). The perception of voiceless nasals by native speakers have not yet been studied. However, existing literature on Burmese voiceless nasals have shown that there are sufficient acoustic cues in the voiced murmur portion of the voiceless nasals for discrimination of the place of articulation (Dantsuji,1986). This study investigates whether the perception results correspond to the acoustic analysis previously observed.

Voiceless nasal sounds in three Tibeto-Burman languages

This paper focuses on two types of voiceless nasal sounds in Xumi, a Tibeto-Burman language: (i) the voiceless aspirated nasals // [] and // [], and (ii) the voiceless nasal glottal fricative []. We provide a synchronic description of these two types of sounds, and explore their similarities and differences. Xumi voiceless nasal consonants are described with reference to the voiceless nasal consonants // and // in Burmese and Kham Tibetan because Burmese voiceless nasals are the best described type of voiceless nasals, and are therefore used as a reference point for comparison; voiceless nasals in Kham Tibetan, which is in close contact with Xumi, represent a characteristic regional feature. The synchronic description is based on acoustic and aerodynamic measurements (the total duration of the target phonemes, the duration of the voiced period during the target phonemes, mean nasal and oral flow). Our study (i) contributes to a better understanding of voiceless nasals as a type of sound, (ii) provides a first-ever instrumental description (acoustic and aerodynamic) of the voiceless nasal glottal fricative [], as attested in a number of Tibeto-Burman languages of Southwest China, and (iii) suggests a possible phonetic basis for the observed dialectal and diachronic variation between voiceless nasals and [] in some Tibeto-Burman languages.

Acoustic characteristics and perception of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami

This study compares and contrasts acoustic characteristics (e.g., nasal murmur’s formant and anti-formant frequencies, vowel formant frequencies, bandwidths, spectral tilts, etc.) of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami, Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. Mizo contrasts voiced and voiceless nasals at the bilabial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation, whereas Angami contrasts them at four different places of articulation: bilabial, alveolar, velar, and palatal. Similar to voiceless nasals previously described for Burmese (Danstuji,1984; Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991), in Mizo, voiceless nasal murmur is followed by a period of voiced nasal murmur as it transitions into the following vowel, while it remains voiceless throughout in Angami. Results of a perception experiment also suggests that the voiced nasal murmur portion in Mizo voiceless nasals aided the identification of its place of articulation, but a heavier perceptual load is placed on the following vowel for place id...

Inter- and intra-speaker variability in the production of voiceless nasal consonants

This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in general and for voiceless nasals in particular.This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in...

The status of voiceless nasals in Miyako Ryukyuan

The current study investigates voiceless nasals in Miyako, a language spoken on remote Japanese islands near Taiwan, focusing on the dialect Ikema. Voiceless nasals are rare cross-linguistically. Hayashi (2013) suggested that there is phonemic contrast between voiced /n, m/ and voiceless /n, m/. Pilot data from one speaker both confirmed and refuted Hayashi’s claims, analysis indicating that these voiceless nasals occur both as voiceless and breathy voiced. Thus, the glottal state of this phoneme may depend on the phonetic environment. The current study further explores these findings based on data collected from four male and two female speakers. Participants were asked to produce target and minimal pair words in isolation and within novel sentences. Voiceless and voiced nasal segments were compared and analyzed for duration, cepstral peak prominence, and amplitude measures of H1 and H2 to determine whether breathy voicing state might differentiate target phonemes from /n/ and /m/. The results of this analysis are used to investigate the nature of this phonemic contrast and how Ikema is situated cross-linguistically in its use of voicing to distinguish nasal phonemes.

Henri Henrikhovitch Manizer's Botocudo folklore texts: a symbol analysis

Abstract Henri Henrikhovitch Manizer (1889–1917) was a Russian ethnographer and linguist who spent six months among the Botocudo people from the Southeastern region of Brazil in the beginning of the twentieth century. His research was the result of a Russian expedition through South America in 1915. Manizer was the first researcher who was able to write down the Botocudo language with the most developed method of his time: the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription (Sebestyén 1981). Although many ethnographers had visited the Botocudo people before him, the material he collected is in many aspects of great value but it still remains unexplored both by linguists. This material includes bilingual Botocudo-Portuguese tales: a bilingual dictionary, articles and notes on the Botocudo grammar and culture, and a description of his impressions of the group. In spite of the good quality of the data, still many problems can be reported, such as the variations registered in the language transcriptions, the difficulties in transcribing some phonetic sounds (like voiceless nasals and contour segments, for example), the translation into Portuguese, problems with comprehension of the morphological and syntactic aspects, and cultural barriers (Seki 1984, 1985, 2001, 2004). In this paper, we aim to show our current research on this matter and present some of the partial results of this investigation based on the linguistic data by Manizer. We found out that our synchronical study of the phonology of the Krenak language, the only language of the Botocudo group which is still alive, leads to a better understanding of this old material, although there will remain still some unanswered questions. It enables us to formulate some hypotheses on what may have happened to the language and, maybe, to predict and understand its changes through time. As a result, we shall be able to work with this old material and make it available for both scholars and speakers of the language.

Phonetic environment of disfluencies in children with stuttering

AbstractPhonological contributions to stuttering have been discussed with increased attention in the recent years. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect of phonological environment during the instances of stuttering. The study included 10 monolingual children with stuttering (CWS) in the age range of 6–8 years, who spoke Kannada (south Indian language) as their mother tongue. Conversation, topic narration, story narration, and picture description tasks were carried out in Kannada language. The relative difficulty of individual syllables for each participant was determined. Further, the effect of phonetic environment (succeeding syllable) during the instances of stuttering was calculated. The results revealed a rank order of relative occurrence of succeeding consonantal contexts. Most of the time, the phonetic environment included voiceless consonants, nasals, and plosives compared to others. This indicated that CWS may have difficulties in the transition of articulatory movement from oral to nasal and from voiced to voiceless consonants during speech production. Findings also revealed variability in the occurrence of phonetic context within and between CWS, which supports the disturbances occurring across various time domains. It is hoped that the findings of the current study will support theorists, researchers, and clinicians in arriving at a more comprehensive understanding of stuttering and phonetic behavior in CWS.

Òma Lóngh Historical Phonology

The phonology of Óma Lóngh Kenyah as described by Soriente (2006) shows strinking typological difference from its nearest relatives. Contrary to a pattern of avoidance that is almost universal in Austronesian languages, it has developed final palatals, including voiceless unreleased palatal stop (written -j), and a palatal nasal (written -ny). In violation of universal tendencies in phonological systems, it has also innovated a voiceless velar nasal (but no other voiceless nasals) in final position. Out of a Proto-Kenyah six-vowel system in which tense mid vowels occurred only word-finally, it has developed three new vowels and an unusual system of soube vowel harmony that requires both High-Mid avoidance and Tense-Lax agreement. Even more surprisingly, a typologically bizarre connection between the tenseness/laxness of the penultimate vowel and the shape of the final syllable is present in one subclass of bases, but emerges clearly only through a historical analysis. Together, these innovations add to an already impressive picture of north-central Borneo as a "hot spot" for rapid phonological change, include changes that do not appear to be phonetically motivated.

Word-final nasals in Romanian

In this study Romanian word-final nasals, e.g., /basm/ ‘‘fairytale,’’ are examined acoustically. Acoustic descriptions of Romanian are few, but early research indicated that word-final nasals are devoiced or partially devoiced. In this study an acoustic analysis of cross-linguistically unusual voiceless nasals, as well as information about a language which has not been phonetically well-documented is provided. In the current work the word-final /sm, mn, Vm, Vn/ are examined. The words were placed in various phonological environments (e.g., utterance final, before vowel-initial following word, etc.). Eight Romanian speakers were recorded. A judgment of voicing was made from the spectrogram. The duration of the gap between the /s/ and /m/, the total duration of voiced nasals and the duration of the preceding vowel were measured. The data was also analyzed for the presence of a release noise at the end of the nasal, which indicates that there is an oral closure during the nasal, and hence that the nasal is devoiced rather than deleted. Preliminary data shows that the average duration for /mn/ (0.148 ms) is longer than the duration of the /n/ or /m/ (0.105 ms) further indicating that deletion is not occurring. The preliminary data also shows that 93% of nasals in the /sm/ sequences are devoiced.

Dictionnaire nelemwa-nixumwak francais-anglais (review)

Reviewed by: Dictionnaire nêlêmwa-nixumwak français-anglais (Nouvelle-Calédonie) John Lynch Isabelle Bril . 2000. Dictionnaire nêlêmwa-nixumwak français-anglais (Nouvelle-Calédonie). SELAF No. 383; Langues et Cultures du Pacifique 14. Paris: Peeters. 523 pp. 1680 Belgian Francs (42 Euros), paper. This is the latest in a series of descriptive studies on the languages of New Caledonia, most of which have been produced by linguists working at LACITO in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. The language under study here is spoken by about 1,000 people living on the extreme northwest coast of the New Caledonian mainland. There are two main dialects: Nêlêmwa /nẽlẽmwa/ is the more northerly, spoken in the Poum area; Nixumwak/nixumwak/lies to the south, in the area of Koumac (and it has sometimes been referred to in the earlier literature as Koumac or Kumak). It is bordered to the north and east by Nyelâyu (Ozanne-Rivierre 1998), to the east by Caaàc, and to the east and south by Yuanga (Schooling 1992). Major previous studies on one or other of these dialects include Haudricourt (1963) and Bril (1995). Preliminary sections (7-12) contain acknowedgments, lists of abbreviations, and so on.1 These are followed by an introductory section (13-24) outlining the place of the language within Austronesian, Oceanic, and the New Caledonian family, some background to the current study, and a discussion on kin terms and terms for aspects of social organization. There follows a thorough outline of the phonology (25-46) and a brief grammatical sketch (47-75), themselves useful contributions to the Oceanic literature. Nyelâyu has a complex phonology typical of New Caledonian languages: contrast between voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated, and prenasalized stops in labiovelar, bilabial, apical, palatal, and velar positions (although the Nixumwak aspirated stops are realized as voiceless fricatives in Nêlêmwa); contrast between voiced and voiceless nasals, lateral and semivowels; seven oral and five nasal vowels; and a phonemic vowel-length distinction. The orthography uses digraphs and trigraphs for complex consonants (e.g., kh for Nixumwak /kh/ and Nêlêmwa /x/, phw for Nixumwak /phw/, etc.); the circumflex accent distinguishes nasal from oral vowels, while vowel length is written by doubling the letter—thus ûû = /ũ:/. Phonological and grammatical differences between the dialects are noted where they occur. The grammar sketch is a brief summary of Bril's (B) Ph.D. dissertation (1995). Like its close relative Nyelâyu (Ozanne-Rivierre 1998, reviewed in OL by Lynch 1999), Nêlêmwa2 is an ergative language: intransitive clauses have the structure [End Page 428] VS, while transitive clauses are VAO or VOA, with agents marked by one of the preposed particles (e)a [+human] or ru [-human]. As in its closer relatives, there are rich systems of deictics and demonstratives, possessive classifiers, and numeral classifiers. There is a bibliography (497-499) and two illustrative texts (501-519) at the end of the book where, following standard French practice, the table of contents is also located (521-527). The bulk of the book is a dictionary of Nêlêmwa: a general Nêlêmwa-French- English list (77-368), followed by two finderlists, French-Nêlêmwa (369-441) and English-Nêlêmwa (443-496). The back-cover blurb states that there are approximately 3,500 entries in the main dictionary, which makes it a substantial one by Pacific standards. The choice of typography and format makes the work quite readable. In the main dictionary, Nêlêmwa items are in bold, with the headword set out slightly to the left and in a larger font than examples within the entry; French definitions and translations are in normal font, English in italic, while grammatical information, cross-referencing, and the like are in a smaller font, usually at the end of the entry. Where forms differ between dialects, these are clearly labelled as P (for Poum, thus Nêlêmwa) or K (for Koumac, thus Nixumwak). Definitions are clear, concise, and yet comprehensive, and there is adequate exemplification of usage, idioms, and so on. (One would always...