{"title":"Articulation of vowel length contrasts in Australian English","authors":"Louise Ratko, Michael Proctor, Felicity Cox","doi":"10.1017/s0025100322000068","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Acoustic studies have shown that in Australian English (AusE), vowel length contrasts are realised through temporal, spectral and dynamic characteristics. However, relatively little is known about the articulatory differences between long and short vowels in this variety. This study investigates the articulatory properties of three long–short vowel pairs in AusE: /iː–ɪ/ <span>beat</span> – <span>bit</span>, /ɐː–ɐ/ <span>cart</span> – <span>cut</span> and /oː–ɔ/ <span>port</span> – <span>pot</span>, using electromagnetic articulography. Our findings show that short vowel gestures had shorter durations and more centralised articulatory targets than their long equivalents. Short vowel gestures also had proportionately shorter periods of articulatory stability and proportionately longer articulatory transitions to following consonants than long vowels. Long–short vowel pairs varied in the relationship between their acoustic duration and the similarity of their articulatory targets: /iː–ɪ/ had more similar acoustic durations and less similar articulatory targets, while /ɐː–ɐ/ were distinguished by greater differences in acoustic duration and more similar articulatory targets. These data suggest that the articulation of vowel length contrasts in AusE may be realised through a complex interaction of temporal, spatial and dynamic kinematic cues.</p>","PeriodicalId":46444,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the International Phonetic Association","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the International Phonetic Association","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025100322000068","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Acoustic studies have shown that in Australian English (AusE), vowel length contrasts are realised through temporal, spectral and dynamic characteristics. However, relatively little is known about the articulatory differences between long and short vowels in this variety. This study investigates the articulatory properties of three long–short vowel pairs in AusE: /iː–ɪ/ beat – bit, /ɐː–ɐ/ cart – cut and /oː–ɔ/ port – pot, using electromagnetic articulography. Our findings show that short vowel gestures had shorter durations and more centralised articulatory targets than their long equivalents. Short vowel gestures also had proportionately shorter periods of articulatory stability and proportionately longer articulatory transitions to following consonants than long vowels. Long–short vowel pairs varied in the relationship between their acoustic duration and the similarity of their articulatory targets: /iː–ɪ/ had more similar acoustic durations and less similar articulatory targets, while /ɐː–ɐ/ were distinguished by greater differences in acoustic duration and more similar articulatory targets. These data suggest that the articulation of vowel length contrasts in AusE may be realised through a complex interaction of temporal, spatial and dynamic kinematic cues.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of the International Phonetic Association (JIPA) is a forum for work in the fields of phonetic theory and description. As well as including papers on laboratory phonetics/phonology and related topics, the journal encourages submissions on practical applications of phonetics to areas such as phonetics teaching and speech therapy, as well as the analysis of speech phenomena in relation to computer speech processing. It is especially concerned with the theory behind the International Phonetic Alphabet and discussions of the use of symbols for illustrating the phonetic structures of a wide variety of languages. JIPA now publishes online audio files to supplement written articles Published for the International Phonetic Association