Recoverability-driven coarticulation: Acoustic evidence from Japanese high vowel devoicing

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Phonetics
• Phonology

Background:

• High vowel devoicing in Japanese (C1VC2 sequence, voiceless C1 and C2) is well-documented.
• Factors influencing the complete deletion of devoiced high vowels remain under investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of phonotactic predictability on the deletion of devoiced high vowels in Japanese.
• To analyze acoustic correlates of devoiced high vowels in relation to their deletion likelihood.

Main Methods:

• Acoustic analysis of recorded speech from 22 native Tokyo Japanese speakers.
• Measurement of C1 duration and center of gravity (COG) for stimuli with varying phonotactic predictability.
• Stimuli included high vowels following consonants /k, ʃ/ (predictable) and /ʧ, ϕ, s, ç/ (unpredictable).

Main Results:

• Devoicing lengthened non-fricative C1 durations but shortened or had no effect on fricative C1 durations.
• Coarticulatory effects (indicated by COG) of devoiced vowels were observed for predictable contexts (/k, ʃ/) but not unpredictable ones (/ʧ, ϕ, s, ç/).
• Acoustic data suggest a greater likelihood of deletion for phonotactically predictable devoiced vowels.

Conclusions:

• Phonotactic predictability significantly influences the deletion of devoiced high vowels in Japanese.
• The findings contribute to understanding the complex interplay between phonetic realization and phonological processes.