The University of Iowa
Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series
Fall 2015
ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MESKWAKI STOPS
Leigh Hunnicutt
University of Iowa
Thursday, December 3, 2015
4:00 pm
106 EPB
The Algonquian language Meskwaki is an endangered language spoken fluently by about 200 older
members of the Meskwaki tribe, which has communities situated in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas. To
date, there has not been any formal phonetic analysis of the Meskwaki language. A definitive descriptive
overview of the language was written by William Jones in 1911, and further descriptive work on the
phonology of the language was conducted by Ives Goddard in 1991 and in the early 2000s. Jones (1911)
describes Meskwaki as having both a voiced and voiceless stop series, as well as a pre-aspirated series of
stops. Goddard (1991), however, includes only voiceless stops, no voiced stops, and claims that the preaspiration in Meskwaki is non-phonemic and highly dependent on individual variation. Later research
argued that Meskwaki, and Algonquian languages in general, do not have true pre-aspiration, but rather
hC clusters (Helgason 2002, Silverman 2003).
However, a pilot study conducted in Meskwaki as spoken at the Settlement in Tama, Iowa
determined that while Meskwaki does not appear to have voiced stops, at least not in initial position, there
is a regular distribution pattern of pre-aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops. The goal of this research
was to build on the results found in the pilot study to determine the distribution of pre-aspirated and
unaspirated voiceless stops in Meskwaki, and provide an instrumental accoustic analysis of the preaspirated stops in Meskwaki to determine whether the language possesses true pre-aspirated stops, or hC
clusters. To this end, stops were examined in initial and medial position in isolated words, as well as in
connected speech.
In answer to the second research goal, this study found that the pre-aspirated stops in Meskwaki
are produced with the characteristic limited distribution, glottalic friction before the stop closure, and
sonorant devoicing that Helgason (2002) used as the guidelines for pre-aspiration. This pre-aspiration was
also consistent across the speakers used for the research. By the standard set out by previous research,
Meskwaki has true pre-aspiration, and not hC clusters. In answer to the first research goal, this study
found that in utterance- and word-initial positions, there is indeed no clear contrast in Meskwaki stops.
All initial stops are produced with short-lag VOT durations. However, in word-medial contexts, there is a
clear distinction between stops that are produced with short-lag VOT and stops produced with preaspiration. Furthermore, data from connected speech showed that some words that were produced with
short-lag VOT in utterance-initial contexts were pre-aspirated in utterance-medial contexts.
Based on the data collected and analyzed in this research, this paper proposes that the Meskwaki
language has both true pre-aspirated stops and short-lag stops. Additionally, it is suggested that in
Meskwaki, the feature of contrast may be [spread glottis]; specified stops may be realized with preaspiration in medial contexts and short-lag due to phonetic constraints in initial contexts, while
unspecified stops are realized as short-lag throughout.
Please join us at 3:30 in 571 EPB for refreshments.