Acoustic Correlates of the Four-Way Laryngeal Contrast in Marathi

The study examines acoustic correlates of the four-way laryngeal contrast in Marathi, focusing on temporal parameters, voice quality, and onset f0. Acoustic correlates of the laryngeal contrast were investigated in the speech of 33 native speakers of Marathi, recorded in Mumbai, India, producing a word list containing six sets of words minimally contrastive in terms of laryngeal specification of word-initial velar stops. Measurements were made for the duration of prevoicing, release, and voicing during release. Fundamental frequency was measured at the onset of voicing following the stop and at 10 additional time points. As measures of voice quality, amplitude differences between the first and second harmonic (H1-H2) and between the first harmonic and the third formant (H1-A3) were calculated. The results demonstrated that laryngeal categories in Marathi are differentiated based on temporal measures, voice quality, and onset f0, although differences in each dimension were unequal in magnitude across different pairs of stop categories. We conclude that a single acoustic correlate, such as voice onset time, is insufficient to differentiate among all the laryngeal categories in languages such as Marathi, characterized by complex four-way laryngeal contrasts. Instead, a joint contribution of several acoustic correlates creates a robust multidimensional contrast.