Duration of the coda clusters in English*
Hyo-Young Kim**
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
English Coda Clusters
3.
Phonetic Issues
4.
An Experiment
5.
Conclusion
6.
Further Study
1. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to see if there is any durational difference between the
consonant clusters articulated by the same articulators and those articulated by two
different articulators with a focus on consonant clusters which occur in the coda
position in English.
2. English coda clusters
There are two types of consonant clusters (CC) which occur in the coda position in
English: the clusters with consonants articulated by two different articulators and
those with consonants articulated by a same articulator. The former will be referred
to as non-homorganic consonant clusters (CC-NH) and the latter as homorganic
consonant clusters (CC-H). The two types are illustrated in (1). Here the capital letter
C indicates a consonant, F fricatives, S stops, and N nasals.
(1) Possible coda clusters in English (Kreidler 1989)
a. Non-homorganic clusters (CC-NH)
- rC :/rp/, /rb/, /rk/, /rf/, /rv/, /rm/
- lC : /lp/ /lb/, /lk/, /lf/, /lv/, /lm/
*
This work was supported by the BK 21, 2003.
Department
of
English
Language
(hyk8392@yahoo.co.kr).
**
and
Literature,
Sogang
University
1
- NC: /nk/
- FS : /sp/, /sk/
- SF : /ks/, /ps/
- SS : /pt/, /kt/
b. Homorganic clusters (CC-H)
- rC : /rt/, /rd/, /rs/, /r /, /rt/, /r/, /r/, /rn/
- lC : /lt/, /ld/, /lt/, /l/, /l/, /ls/, /l/, /ln/
- NC : /mf/, /mp/, /nd/, /nt/, /ns/, /n/, /nt/, /n/
- FS : /st/
- SF: /dz/, /tz/
3. Phonetic issues
According to Feature Geometry (FG, Halle 1992),1 sounds are classified into three
groups based on the place of articulation or based on their articulators: labial, coronal,
and dorsal sounds.
(2) Articulators
Sounds
Place
Lips ---------------------- [p, b, m, w] ------------------------------- Labial
Tongue tip/blade --------- [, , t, d, s, z, , , t, d, l, n , r]----- Coronal
Back of the tongue ------- [k, g, ]------------------------------------Dorsal
The first group of sounds are articulated by lips and called 'labial'. The sounds, [p, b,
m, w], belong to the group. The second group is referred to as the 'coronal' sounds.
This group contains [, , t, d, s, z, ,  t, d, l, n, r]. They are articulated by the
tongue tip or blade. The third group is articulated by the back of the tongue and
called 'dorsal'. The sounds, [k, g, ], belong to dorsal sounds.
Secondly, each articulator can only occur once in a single sound and thus nonhomorganic clusters can be represented with a single feature tree forming one sound
while homorganic ones cannot. For example, [r] and [p] can be represented with one
feature tree because they are articulated by two different articulators, namely, the
tongue tip and the lips while [r] and [t] cannot. That is because both [r] and [t] are
articulated by a same articulator, the tongue tip. However, it should be noted that
1
Besides the articulators introduced above, there are three more articulators assumed in Halle
(1998). Those are Glottis, Tongue Root, and Soft Palate These articulators can be combined
independently with features executed by any of the other five.
2
Feature Geometry does not say the non-homorganic sounds 'have to' be represented
with one feature tree but says that they 'can' do so.2 Feature trees for non-homorganic
(if combined into one) and homorganic clusters are given in (3).
(3) Feature Tree
a.
X
/
Placei
b. X
\
|
Placej
Coronal Labial
X
|
Placei Placei
Coronal Coronal
|
|
|
|
[r]
[p]
[r]
[t]
In (3a), to say that [r] and [p] form a feature tree means that [r] and [p] are articulated
at the same time. That is, when you start to produce [r] with the tongue tip, the lips
are rounded for [p]. In other words, CC-NH in (1a) can form a single sound and thus
have feature tree like (3a) while CC-H in (1b) cannot form a single sound and thus
must have the structure like (3b).
Saying CC form a single sound has a phonetic consequence. Ladefoged and
Maddieson (1996) note that the total duration of the gestures in secondary
articulations does not equal that of a sequence of two corresponding articulations in a
cluster. The proposed reason for this is that in the case of secondary articulations, the
two gestures occur largely simultaneously, even though there is a small timing offsets
between the articulations.
Consequently, duration of CC-NH would be shorter than that of CC-H if CC-NH
forms a single sound. The capital letter ‘d’ indicates duration.
(4) Prediction: D (CC-NH) < D (CC-H)
if CC-NH forms a single sound.
However, there is another prediction by phoneticians like Beddor (p.c.) and Ball and
Rahilly (1999). The prediction is in conflict with that made in (3) by Feature
2
As an anonymous reviewer points out, not all advocates of Feature Geometry (Clements
1985, Sagey 1986) assume that non-homorganic consonants are represented in a feature tree.
Then, the experiment conducted for this paper may not argue against Feature Geometry,
becoming a pure phonetic experiment without any phonological consequences. In order to
make a conclusion relevant to English phonology, it would be desirable to provide some
phonological evidence that non-homorganic consonant clusters occupy one timing-slot in
English.
3
Geometry. Beddor pointed out that from phonetic point of view CC with the same
articulator (CC-H) is expected to be shorter than CC with different articulators (CCNH) because in producing clusters with the same articulator speakers can save time
since there is no need to move from one articulator to another (the effect of coarticulation). This phonetic view contradicts the prediction of Feature Geometry
because according to FG, CC with different articulators could be shorter than CC
with the same articulator but not the other way around.
4. An Experiment
4.1 Design
To see whether duration of CC-NH is different from that of CC-H, more specifically
to see whether CC-NH form a single sound in English, I ran a small experiment in
which two sets of words were recorded. Each set is constructed to contain 9 monomorphemic words. 3 The first set contains CC-H and the second set CC-NH. In each
set, duration of C1 in (C)VC1, C2 in (C)VC2, and C1C2 in (C)VC1C2 are measured and
compared with each other. To take an example, the duration of /r/ in par, /t/ in pot
and /rt/ in a word part is measured in the first set where CC cannot be represented as
a single feature tree. In the second set, duration of /r/ in car, /p/ in cop and /rp/ in a
word carp is measured and compared with each other. In the second set, a sequence
of two consonants can be represented as a single feature tree. The word list used in
the experiment is given in (5). CC-H contains [lt], [rt], and [nd] and CC-NH involves
[lk], [rp], and [md].
(5) Word list
a. CC-H: [l/t/lt]
kill, kit, kilt;
[r/t/rt]
par, pot, part;
[n/d/nd]
San, sad, sand
b. CC-NH: [l/k/lk]
mill, mick, milk;
[r/p/rp]
car, cop, carp;
[m/d/md]
ham, had, hammed
4.2 Method
The list was randomized 5 times and recorded using a DAT recorder in the soundproof room at a moderate rate with two-time repetition by a male native speaker of
4
English.4 All words were spoken in the carrier sentence “Say X again” in order to
produce speaking rates closer to conversational speech and to avoid effects of prepausal lengthening in utterance-final position. The onset point and the offset point for
segmental duration is defined with respect to certain acoustic landmarks in the
spectrogram simultaneously consulting the corresponding waveform displays. The
Soundscope was used for the experiment. The first deep valley in the waveform
display was also taken into consideration. I included both aspiration 5 and closure into
the duration of stops. For the boundary of sonorants and vowels, I took the midpoint
of transition: primarily I used F3 transition for /r/ and F2 and F3 for /l/.
4.3 Results
The results of the experiment are given below; duration of CC-H set and that of CCNH in order.
4.3.1 CC-H
The average duration of C1, C2 and C1C2 in CC-H are given in (6). Values there are
duration in milliseconds. For convenience, I assign numbers to columns. I will give
examples to show what each column represents. For example, column 1 shows
duration of /r/ in a word par, column 2 is that of /t/ in pot, and column 3 is that of /rt/
in part. Column 4 is the sum duration of /r/ and /t/. That is, column 4 equals the sum
of column 1 and column 2.
(6) CC-H
Duration of
l, t, lt
r, t, rt 6
n, d, nd
Average
1
2
3
4
C1
68.0
60.4
42.6
57.0
C2
82.7
32.8
45.9
53.8
(actual )C1C2
160.0
89.8
72.6
107.5
(added) C1+C2
150.7
93.2
88.5
110.8
3
There is a hetero-morphemic word in the word list because I cannot find a proper monomorphemic word. It is hammed.
4
This study's limitation is that the subject for it is only one speaker.
5
I did not know majority of phoneticians exclude aspiration part from the duration of stop
sounds until I finished the measurement and had discussion with Duanmu and Beddor.
However, the exclusion does not affect the result of this experiment since essentially the goal
of this experiment is not the absolute value of consonants' duration but the comparison of
duration between consonants.
6
The second consonant in /rt/ is longer than the first one. In this respect, /r/ is different from
other consonant. Further research seems to be needed to explain the different behavior of /r/.
5
The result in (6) shows that consonant clusters are as long as two consonants. This
result conforms the prediction by Feature Geometry. According to the assumption of
Feature Geometry, duration of C1C2 would be the same as column 4, the sum
duration of two independent consonants C1 and C2 because C1 and C2 should be
represented with two feature trees like two separate sounds. In fact, the duration of
C1C2, 107.5 (ms), is very close to the predicted length, 110.8 (ms). In other words,
homorganic consonant clusters are a sequence of two consonants.
4.3.2 CC-NH
Now let us look at the average duration of the consonant clusters in the second
group, given in (7). To take examples, column 1 is duration of /r/ in a word car,
column 2 is that of /p/ in cop, and column 3 is that of /rp/ in carp. Column 4 is the
added sum of column 1 and column 2.
(7) CC-NH
Duration of
l, k ,lk
r, p, rp
m, d, md
Average
1
2
3
4
C3
59.3
103.8
68.3
77.2
C4
98.9
89.1
45.9
78.0
C3C4
184.0
158.3
119.7
154
C3+C4
158.2
192.9
114.2
155.1
According to Feature Geometry, these C3C4 could behave differently from C1C2
since the former are CC-NH and thus can form a single sound while the latter are
CC-H which should be the separate sounds.
If C3 and C4 in C3C4 form a sound, then the duration of C3C4 should be close to the
half of the sum duration of C3+C4. Thus, the predicted value for column 3 is
approximately the half of column 4. That is 77.5 (ms.). However, the real duration of
C3C4 is 154 (ms.). It is much longer than the half of the sum duration of C3 and C4.
Rather it is close to the sum duration, 155.1 (ms.) as was the case in CC-H. Based on
this result, it can be concluded that non-homorganic consonant clusters in English
cannot be represented as a single feature tree. In other words, non-homorganic
consonant clusters are sequences of two consonants rather than forming a single
sound with secondary articulation.
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5. Conclusion
In conclusion, consider (8) to see the result more clearly. (8) shows the expected and
obtained value under the assumption that CC-NH can be a single sound but CC-H
cannot.
(8) Comparison of the expected and the obtained values
C1C2 (CC-H)
C3C4 (CC-NH)
Expected value
110.8 (C1+ C2)
77.5 (1/2 of C3+C4)
Obtained value
107.5
155.1
Expected value for CC-H is the sum duration of C1 and C2 while the expected value
for CC-NH is the half of the sum duration. However, it is very clear in (8) that there
is no durational difference between CC-H and CC-NH in English.
To visualize the approximate length of CC-H and CC-NH, I converted the absolute
value to the relative one by setting the sum duration of two consonants as 2.
(9) Converted Length
Converted duration
Duration of C+C
CC-H
1.94
2
CC-NH
1.98
2
The result of the experiment suggests that in the coda it does not play any role in
duration of the consonant clusters whether the articulators involved in the consonant
clusters are same or different. What we have found is that duration of consonant
clusters is close to the sum duration of two consonants regardless of whether it
involves a same articulator or two different articulators. Even though consonant
clusters with different articulators can form a single sound according to Feature
Geometry, the coda clusters in English seem to remain as two separate sounds.
The finding seems to argue against a phonological argument that codas are always
simple unlike onsets which can be complex (Roca 1999: 284-7). According to the
argument only one segment is allowed in the coda position in English and the rest of
the consonants occurring after the coda consonant is attached directly to the syllable
node having the syllable structure in (10b) rather than (10a).
(10) a.
Syllable
b.
Syllable
7
/
Onset
/
Nucleus
\
Rime
\
Coda
| |
r t
r p
/
Onset
\
Rime \
/
|
\
Nucleus Coda |
|
|
r
t
r
p
6. Further Study
To make the findings more complete or make the voice stronger, I am planning to
expand the experiment by involving more tokens, more speakers, and statistical
analysis. In addition, a comparison of duration of the coda consonant clusters, which
we already have, and that of English onset consonant clusters, most of which can
form one segment, would be very interesting. A study (Kim 1999) shows that there is
a significant durational difference between consonants (especially glides) in CC-NH
and those in CC-H when the consonant clusters occur in the onset.
References
Ball, M. and J. Rahilly. 1999. Phonetics: the Science of Speech. London : Arnold.
Clements, G. N. 1985. The geometry of phonological features. Phonology 2:225-252.
Halle, M. 1992. Phonological features. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, vol.
3, ed., by W. Bright, 207 –12. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kim, H-Y. 1999. Simple syllable structure and duration of English pre-nucleus glides.
Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Language, Information, and Computation 13.
Taipei: Taiwan University.
Kreidler, C. W. 1989. The Pronunciation of English: a Course Book in Phonology.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Ladefoged, P. and I. Maddieson. 1996. The Sounds of the World’s Language.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Roca, I. and WYN Johnson. 1999. A Course in Phonology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Sagey, E. 1986. Degree of closure in complex segments. Features, segmental
structure and harmony processes (part I), ed. by H. van der Hulst and N. Smith,
169-208. Dordrecht: Foris.
Kim, Hyo-Young
8
English Language and Literature
Sogang University
02) 705-8308
E-mail: hyk8392@yahoo.co.kr
9
Abstract
Hyo-Young Kim
이 논문은 영어의 음절 말 자음군의 길이를 재는 작은 음성학적 실험의
결과를 알리는 것이 목표이다. 영어의 음절 말 자음 군은 두 종류로 나뉠 수
있다. 같은 조음 기관에 의해 조음 되는 자음들이 모인 것과 다른 조음 기관에
의해 조음 되는 음들이 모인 것이 그것이다. [rt] 는 첫 번째 부류의 예가 될 수
있고 [rp]는 두 번째 부류의 자음군의 예가 될 수 있다. 자질 배열론(Feature
Geometry)에 의하면, 다른 조음 기관에 의해 조음 되는 자음 군은 하나의
자질도(feature tree)로 표시할 수 있는 반면, 같은 조음 기관에 의해 조음 되는
자음 군은 그렇지 못하다. 하나의 자질도로 표시할 수 있다는 것은 자음 군을
이루는 두 자음이 한 소리가 되었음을 의미하며, 그럴 경우 그 자음 군의 길이는
두 소리가 연이어 나는 자음 연쇄보다 짧아야 한다. 과연 그러한지를 각각
9 개의 영어 단어로 구성된 두 세트의 단어들로 실험하였다. 결과, 영어의 음절
말 자음군의 경우, 다른 조음 기관에 의해 조음 되는 자음 군이 같은 조음
기관에 의해 조음 되는 자음 군과 길이에서 차이를 보이지 않아, 두 자음이 한
소리가 되지 않고 두 소리로 남아있음을 알 수 있었다.
Key words: duration, consonant clusters, English codas, Feature Geometry
10