Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
The phonetics and phonology of four-way stops in Indic languages
A general overview
Md Jahurul Islam
Department of Linguistics
The University of British Columbia
Feb. 17, 2021
Brac University, Dhaka
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Background
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Stop sounds
I
Stop sounds are attested in almost all the languages in the world.
I
I
They are relatively easy to make.
Even children tend to produce stop sounds before other consonants.
I they often start their babbling with [dadada]
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Stop contrasts in world languages
I
A language can have many dierent combinations of stop sounds.
I
Hawaiian is known for just one category of stop.
I
On the other hand, Beja (spoken in Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea) has been reported
to have a six-way contrast.
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Stop contrasts in world languages
I
Here's a quick list of attested contrasts in world languages.
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Stop contrasts in Indic languages
I
Indic languages are known for a rich set of four-way stops.
I
In most of these systems, there are sixteen stop sounds that are distributed across
four places and four manners of articulations.
I
The contrasts are achieved primarily via voicing and aspiration dierences.
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Stop contrasts in Indic languages
I
Some Indic languages with the four-way stop series
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Bangla stops
h
*/p / is often realized as a bilabial fricative (F)
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Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Today's talk
Today's talk
I
Today, I will discuss how four-way stop sounds are described in linguistics, focusing
on:
I their phonetic properties (both articulatory and acoustic), and
I their phonological representations via distinctive features
I
And, we will review how traditional descriptors tends to fall short in capturing the
voiced-aspirate category
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
10/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Articulation of stops
I
I
The general mechanism for producing stop sounds is fairly simple
It involves two basic steps
I make a complete-closure of the airow while the velar port remains closed
I as the air pressure behind the closure grows, release the stop
I
Additional gestures can help produce dierent types of stops:
I vocal fold vibrations
I wide-open vocal folds
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Articulation of stops
Source: Ladefoged (1971:10)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Articulation of stops
Behavior of the vocal folds in stop sounds (Davis, 1994:190)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
14/36
UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Articulatory congurations in stop sounds
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
15/36
UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Acoustics of stop sounds
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Stop sounds in speech signals
Stop vs. fricative: [ata-asa]
I
A stop sound has a closure duration, seen as silence in speech signal
I
The closure duration is followed by a burst (when the closure is released)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
17/36
UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Stop sounds in speech signals
h
Unaspirated vs. aspirated stop: [ka-k a]
I
Time between the release and the voicing onset is called Voice Onset Time (VOT)
(Lisker & Abramson, 1964)
I
VOT is longer in aspirated stops
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
18/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Stop sounds in speech signals
Voiceless vs. voiced stop: [ta-da]
I
VOT is negative in voiced stops
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
19/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Stop sounds in speech signals
VOT in Hindi stops (Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011:156)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
20/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
Stop sounds in speech signals
Bangla stop categories in waveform:
Unasp
Asp
pa
PV
pha
PV
ba
Asp
bha
2.744
0
Time (s)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
21/36
UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Acoustic cues
VOT in dierent categories
Source: Schwarz et al. (2019)
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Segmental features
Phonology of stop sounds
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
23/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Segmental features
Featural representations
I
Four-way stop sounds are phonologically represented via two laryngeal features:
I [voice]
I [Spread glottis (SG)]
I
These two features are grounded into the phonetics of the sounds; e.g.,
I /b/ has a feature [voice] since it is produced with prevoicing
I /ph / has a feature [SG] since it is produced with wide-open glottis
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
24/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Segmental features
Featural representations
Using binary features in four-way stops (Davis, 1994; Lombardi, 1991)
Stop category
Phonetic
Features
Voiceless-unaspirate
[p]
[−voice,
Voiceless-aspirate
h
[p ]
[−voice,
Voiced-unaspirate
[b]
[+voice,
Voiced-aspirate
h
[b ]
[+voice,
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
−spread
+spread
−spread
+spread
glottis]
glottis]
glottis]
glottis]
25/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Segmental features
Featural representations
I
A more sophisticated approach is to use unary features, as proposed by the theory
of Laryngeal Realism (Iverson & Salmons, 1995; Honeybone, 2005; Beckman et al.,
2013)
I
In this approach, only the presence of a feature is marked; no information of the
absence of a feature is required.
I
Thus, stops are said to be `specied' for the features as below:
Stop category
Phonetic
Features
Voiceless-unaspirate
[p]
[Ø]
Voiceless-aspirate
h
[p ]
[spread glottis]
Voiced-unaspirate
[b]
Voiced-aspirate
[b ]
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
h
[voice]
[voice, spread glottis]
26/36
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
...
Issues with voiced-aspirates
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Issues with voiced-aspirates
I
Now, the features for the categories except the voiced-aspirate perfectly align with
their phonetic properties.
I
E.g.,
I /b/ has prevoicing, so it is marked with [voice] feature
I /ph / has aspiration, so it is marked with [SG] feature
I /p/ is left without a laryngeal feature since it has no prevoicing or aspiration
I
h
But, the case of /b / has some potential issues
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Issues with voiced-aspirates
I
h
h
First, using an [SG] feature indicates that both /p / and /b / share the
same/comparable property of aspiration
I This is actually not the case (we'll see it in a moment).
I
Second, using a [voice] indicates that the prevoicing too is the same/comparable
h
between /b/ and /b /
I This is also questionable.
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Issues with voiced-aspirates
h a/ and /d
” h a/
Comparing aspiration in /”
t
I
The two aspiration intervals are qualitatively dierent
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
30/36
UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Issues with voiced-aspirates
h
Prevoicing in /b/ vs. /b /
I
h
The duration of prevoicing in /b/ and /b / has been reported to be consistently
dierent (Lisker & Abramson, 1964; Schiefer, 1989; Berkson, 2013)
I
It has also been suggested that the prevoicing in voiced-aspirates is qualitatively
dierent from plain-voiced stops (still unexplored, I think).
Md Jahurul Islam
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Issues with voiced-aspirates
What can be an alternative then?
I
The aspiration duration in voiced-aspirates have long been described to have
breathy phonation (Ladefoged, 1971; Schiefer, 1989; Beckman et al., 2013; Khan
& Esposito, 2011)
I
Instead of using a combination of [voice] and [SG] introducing a single feature
[breathy] might be an option
I The advantage of this approach is that the feature [breathy] is more grounded into
phonetics.
I It can also oer some simplications to the featural specication models as it relates
to the typology of stops sounds (which would the subject of a separate discussion, of
course).
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Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
...
To summarize...
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
To summarize...
I
Prevoicing and aspiration are the cues used to describe stop sounds
I
Positive and negative VOT are used to capture the stop contrasts
I
The phonological representation of four-way stop contrasts involve the use of the
features [voice] and [spread glottis]
I
h
The /p/, /p / and /b/ categories are straightforward in terms of their featural
representations
I
However, ...
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
To summarize...
I
h
The /b / category is a challenging:
I VOT theory cannot capture /bh /
I the combination of [voice] and [spread glottis] is also problematic
I a proposal for a [breathy] feature can be more appropriate in terms of phonetic
grounding
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Thank You!
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Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Ahn, Sang-Cheol & Gregory K Iverson. 2004. Dimensions in Korean laryngeal phonology. Journal of
East Asian Linguistics 13(4). 345379.
Beckman, Jill, Michael Jessen & Catherine Ringen. 2013. Empirical evidence for laryngeal features:
Aspirating vs. true voice languages. Journal of Linguistics 49(02). 259284.
Berkson, Kelly Harper. 2013. Phonation types in Marathi: An acoustic investigation: University of
Kansas dissertation.
Davis, Katharine. 1994. Stop voicing in Hindi. Journal of phonetics 22(2). 177193.
Honeybone, Patrick. 2005. Diachronic evidence in segmental phonology: The case of obstruent
laryngeal specications. The internal organization of phonological segments 319. 317351.
Iverson, Gregory K. & Joseph C Salmons. 1995. Aspiration and laryngeal representation in Germanic.
Phonology 12(03). 369396.
Khan, S. D. & C. M. Esposito. 2011. Breathiness contrasts in consonants and vowels: a comparative
study of Gujarati and White Hmong. ICPhS XVII. 1721.
Ladefoged, Peter. 1971. Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago
Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=VqEXghQ-ow0C.
Ladefoged, Peter & Keith Johnson. 2011. A course in phonetics. Canada: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning 6th edn.
Lisker, Leigh & Arthur S Abramson. 1964. A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops:
Acoustical measurements. Word 20(3). 384422.
Lombardi, Linda. 1991. Laryngeal features and laryngeal neutralization: University of Massachussetts
dissertation.
Md Jahurul Islam
Phonetics and phonology of four-way stops
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UBC
Background
Phonetics of stops
Phonology of stops
Voiced-aspirates
Conclusion
References
Masica, Colin P. 1993. The indo-aryan languages. Cambridge University Press.
Schiefer, Lieselotte. 1989. `Voiced aspirated' or `breathy voiced' and the case for articulatory
phonology. Forschungsberichte 27. 257278.
Schwarz, Martha, Morgan Sonderegger & Heather Goad. 2019. Realization and representation of
Nepali laryngeal contrasts: voiced aspirates and laryngeal realism. Journal of Phonetics 73. 113127.
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