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Published on: May 23, 2017
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Prosodically Conditioned Consonant Duration in Djambarrpuyŋu
Kathleen Jepson1, Janet Fletcher1, Hywel Stoakes2
1The University of Melbourne, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australia.
Language and Speech
|March 3, 2019
Summary
Consonant duration in Djambarrpuyŋu, an Australian Indigenous language, is influenced by prosodic structure. Unlike other Australian languages, post-tonic lengthening is not a prominence cue, but domain-final lengthening is observed.
Area of Science:
- Phonetics and Phonology
- Linguistic Prosody
- Australian Indigenous Languages
Background:
- Cross-linguistic studies show consonant lengthening near prosodic events like phrase boundaries, phrasal accents, or lexical stress.
- Australian Indigenous languages may exhibit different patterns, with claims of consonant lengthening after phrasal pitch accents, indicating post-tonic prosodic strength.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of phrasal pitch accent proximity and prosodic constituent boundaries on consonant duration in Djambarrpuyŋu.
- To examine consonant duration in stop and nasal consonants across words of varying lengths.
Main Methods:
- Acoustic analysis of consonant durations (stops and nasals) in Djambarrpuyŋu words.
- Examination of consonant position relative to phrasal pitch accents and prosodic constituent boundaries.
- Analysis of consonant duration in relation to word length and position within prosodic domains.
Main Results:
- Post-tonic consonant position did not generally condition longer duration, except for intervocalic post-tonic consonants in disyllabic words.
- Polysyllabic shortening significantly affected segment duration; word-initial position did not yield longer durations than word-medial.
- Domain-final lengthening was observed, with word-final nasals before a pause being significantly longer than other consonants.
Conclusions:
- In Djambarrpuyŋu, post-tonic lengthening does not appear to signal prosodic prominence, diverging from claims about other Australian languages.
- Consonant duration patterns in Djambarrpuyŋu align with general cross-linguistic observations for prosodic domain-initial and -final positions.
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