Phonetica was published by Karger Publishers up to and including 2020. If you or your institution subscribed to Phonetica during that period, you might still have access to the full text of this article on the Karger platform if you cannot access it here.
Abstract
Eight speakers (4 male and 4 female) of the Muskogee dialect of Creek pronounced a set of words illustrating the vowels and diphthongs of Creek. These recordings were analyzed acoustically and data on vowel duration and vowel formant frequencies are presented in this paper. The ratio of the durations of dictinctively long and short vowels was 1.8. This ratio showed a sex difference, being larger for female speakers than it was for male speakers. Final lengthening was also observed: both distinctively long and short vowels were longer in word-final position than in word-initial position. The vowel formant data showed two additive, orthogonal phonetic vowel reduction processes: short vowel centralization and positional reduction. Short vowel centralization has been found in many languages. Distinctively long vowels in Creek tended to be more peripheral in the acoustic vowel space than were the distinctively short vowels. Positional reduction is also evident in these data: vowels in word-final position were reduced relative to vowels in word-initial position. Short vowel centralization was preserved in both positions in the word. Positional reduction has been documented in several languages, and these results from Creek lend support to the hypothesis that it is a general property of speech production. The results of this acoustic-phonetic study, the first such study of Creek, are discussed in light of cross-linguistic phonetic trends.
verified
References
1 Abramson, A.S.; Ren, N.: Distinctive vowel length: duration vs. spectrum in Thai. J. Phonet. 18: 79–92 (1990).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30395-XSearch in Google Scholar
2 Aoki, C.; Klatt, D.H.; Kawasaki, H.: Acoustic-phonetic analysis of Japanese. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 75: S60 (1984).10.1121/1.2021521Search in Google Scholar
3 Beckman, J.N.: Positional faithfulness, positional neutralization and Shona vowel harmony. Phonology 14: 1–46 (1997).10.1017/S0952675797003308Search in Google Scholar
4 Beckman, M.; Edwards, J.; Fletcher, J.: Prosodic structure and tempo in a sonority model of articulatory dynamics; in Docherty, Ladd, Papers in laboratory phonology II: Gesture, segment and prosody, pp. 68–89 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992).10.1017/CBO9780511519918.004Search in Google Scholar
5 Behne, D.; Moxness, B.; Nyland, A.: Acoustic-phonetic evidence of vowel quantity and quality in Norwegian. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 2, pp. 13–16 (1996).Search in Google Scholar
6 Berkovits, R.: Durational effects in final lengthening, gapping, and contrastive stress. Lang. Speech 37: 237–250 (1994).Search in Google Scholar
7 Bladon, R.A.W.; Henton, C.G.; Pickering, J.B.: Towards and auditory theory of speaker normalization. Lang. Commun. 4: 59–69 (1984).10.1016/0271-5309(84)90019-3Search in Google Scholar
8 Buckley, E.: Iambic lengthening and final vowels. Int. J. Am. Ling. 64: 179–223 (1998).10.1086/466357Search in Google Scholar
9 Byrd, D.: Sex, dialects, and reduction. Proc. ICSLP 92: 1992 Int. Conf. on Spoken Lang. Processing, vol. 1, pp. 827–830.Search in Google Scholar
10 Byrd, D.: Influences on articulatory timing in consonant sequences. J. Phonet. 24: 209–244 (1996).10.1006/jpho.1996.0012Search in Google Scholar
11 Carlson, R.; Friberg, A.; Frydén, L.; Granström, B.; Sundberg, J.: Speech and music performance: parallels and contrasts. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 4, pp. 7–23 (1987).Search in Google Scholar
12 Cho, T.; Taff, A.; Dirks, M.; Ladefoged, P.: Some phonetic structures of Aleut. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 95: 68–90 (1997).Search in Google Scholar
13 Choi, J.D.; Keating, P.: Vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in three Slavic languages. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 78: 78–86 (1991).Search in Google Scholar
14 Cooper, W.E.: Syntactic control of speech timing; PhD diss. Psychology, MIT (1976).Search in Google Scholar
15 Dankovičcová, J.: The domain of articulation rate variation in Czech. J. Phonet. 25: 287–312 (1997).10.1006/jpho.1997.0045Search in Google Scholar
16 D’Imperio, M.; GiliFavela, B.: Laboratory phonology paper (1998).De Jong, K.; McDonough, J.: Tone and tonogenesis in Navajo. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 84: 165–182 (1993).Search in Google Scholar
17 Delattre, P.: A comparison of syllable length conditioning among languages. Int. Rev. appl. Ling. 4: 183–198 (1966).10.1515/iral.1966.4.1-4.183Search in Google Scholar
18 Edwards, J.; Beckman, M.E.; Fletcher, J.: The articulatory kinematics of final lengthening. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 89: 369–382 (1991).10.1121/1.400674Search in Google Scholar
19 Eek, A.; Remmel, M.: Context, contacts and duration: two results concerning temporal organization. Preprints Speech Commun. Semin., pp. 187–192, 1974.Search in Google Scholar
20 Fant, G.: A note on vocal tract size factors and nonuniform F-pattern scalings; in Fant, Speech sounds and features (MIT Press, Cambridge 1973).Search in Google Scholar
21 Fischer-Jørgensen, E.: Formant frequencies of long and short Danish vowels; in Firchow et al., Studies for Einar Haugen, pp. 189–213 (Mouton, The Hague 1972).10.1515/9783110879131-017Search in Google Scholar
22 Fletcher, J.: Rhythm and final lengthening in French. J. Phonet. 19: 193–212 (1991).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30217-7Search in Google Scholar
23 Fletcher, J.; Vatikiotis-Bateson, E.: Articulation of prosodic contrasts in French. Proc. 12th Int. Congr. Phonet. Sci., vol. 4, pp. 18–21, 1991.Fónagy, I.; Magdics, K.: Speech of utterance in phrases of different lengths. Lang. Speech 3: 179–192 (1960).Search in Google Scholar
24 Fougeron, C.; Keating, P.A.: Articulatory strengthening at edges of prosodic domains. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 101: 3728–3740 (1997).10.1121/1.418332Search in Google Scholar
25 Garnes, S.: Phonetic evidence supporting a phonological analysis. J. Phonet. 1: 273–283 (1973).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31391-9Search in Google Scholar
26 Gordon, M.: The phonetic structures of Hupa. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 93: 164–187 (1996).Search in Google Scholar
27 Gordon, M.; Maddieson, I.: The phonetics of Ndumbea. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 91: 25–44 (1995).Search in Google Scholar
28 Gordon, M.; Munro, P.; Ladefoged, P.: The phonetic structures of Chickasaw. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 95: 41–67 (1997).Search in Google Scholar
29 Haas, M.R.: Ablaut and its function in Muskogee. Language 16: 141–150 (1940).10.2307/408948Search in Google Scholar
30 Haas, M.: Tonal accent in Creek; in Hyman, Studies in stress and accent, vol. 4. SCOPIL (University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1977a).Search in Google Scholar
31 Haas, M.R.: Nasals and nasalization in Creek; in Whistler et al., Proc. 3rd Annu. Meet. Berkeley Ling. Soc., pp. 194–203 (Berkeley Linguistics Society, University of California, Berkeley 1977b).10.3765/bls.v3i0.3288Search in Google Scholar
32 Hallé, P.; Boysson-Bardies, B. de; Vihman, M.M.: Beginnings of prosodic organization: intonation and duration patterns of disyllables produced by Japanese and French infants. Lang. Speech 34: 299–318 (1991).10.1177/002383099103400401Search in Google Scholar
33 Herman, R.; Beckman, M.; Honda, K.: Subglottal pressure and final lowering in English. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Spoken Lang. Processing, pp. 145–148, 1997.Ho, A.T.: The acoustic variation of Mandarin tones. Phonetica 33: 353–367 (1976).Search in Google Scholar
34 Hofhuis, E.; Gussenhoven, C.; Rietveld, A.: Final lengthening at prosodic boundaries in Dutch. Proc. Congr. Phonet. Sci., vol. 1, pp. 154–157, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
35 Hume, E.V.: Front vowels, coronal consonants and their interaction in nonlinear phonology (Garland, New York 1994).Search in Google Scholar
36 Hunnicut, S.: Intelligibility versus redundancy: conditions of dependency. Lang. Speech 28: 45–56 (1985).10.1177/002383098502800103Search in Google Scholar
37 Hutchinson, S.: An objective index of the English-Spanish pronunciation dimension; Master’s thesis University of Texas, Austin (1973).Search in Google Scholar
38 Iivonen, A.: On the relationship between the main components in the control of speech. Preprints Speech Commun. Semin., pp. 163–172, 1974.Search in Google Scholar
39 Jones, D.: Chronemes and tonemes. Acta ling. 3: 1–10 (1942/43).Search in Google Scholar
40 Jun, S.: The phonetics and phonology of Korean prosody; PhD diss. Ohio State University (1993).Search in Google Scholar
41 Kaiki, N.; Takeda, K.; Sagisaka, Y.: Statistical analysis for segmental duration rules in Japanese speech synthesis; in Proc. 1990 Int. Conf. on Spoken Lang. Processing, vol. 1, pp. 17–20 (1990).Search in Google Scholar
42 Keating, P.A.; Huffman, M.K.: Vowel variation in Japanese. Phonetica 41: 191–207 (1984).10.1159/000261726Search in Google Scholar
43 Klatt, D.H.: Linguistic uses of segmental duration in English: acoustic and perceptual evidence. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 59: 1208–1221 (1976).10.1121/1.380986Search in Google Scholar
44 Krakow, R.A.: Nonsegmental influences on velum movement patterns: syllables, sentences, stress, and speaking rate; in Huffman, Krakow, Nasals, nasalization, and the velum. Phonetics and Phonology V, pp. 87–118 (Academic Press, New York 1993).10.1016/B978-0-12-360380-7.50008-9Search in Google Scholar
45 Krakow, R.A.; Bell-Berti, F.; Wang, Q.E.: Supralaryngeal declination: evidence from the velum; in Bell-Berti, Raphael, Producing speech: contemporary issues for Katherine Safford Harris, pp. 333–353 (American Institute of Physics Press, New York 1995).Search in Google Scholar
46 Ladefoged, P.; Ladefoged, J.; Turk, A.; Hind, K.; Skilton, St.J.: Phonetic structures of Gaelic. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 95: 114–153 (1997).Search in Google Scholar
47 Lee, T.: The vowel system in two varieties of Cantonese. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 57: 97–114 (1983).Search in Google Scholar
48 Lehiste, I.: Suprasegmentals (MIT Press, Cambridge 1970).Search in Google Scholar
49 Lehiste, I.: The timing of utterances and linguistic boundaries. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 51: 2018–2024 (1972).10.1121/1.1913062Search in Google Scholar
50 Lehiste, I.; Ivić, P.: Word and sentence prosody in Serbo-Croatian (MIT Press, Cambridge 1986).Search in Google Scholar
51 Lehtonen, J.: Aspects of quantity in Standard Finnish. Stud. philol. Jyväskyläensia 6: (1970).Search in Google Scholar
52 Lieberman, P.: Some effects of semantic and grammatical context on the production and perception of speech. Lang. Speech 6: 172–187 (1963).10.1177/002383096300600306Search in Google Scholar
53 Lindau-Webb, M.: Hausa vowels and diphthongs. Stud. Afr. Ling. 16: 161–182 (1985).10.32473/sal.v16i2.107504Search in Google Scholar
54 Lindblom, B.: Spectrographic study of vowel reduction. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 35: 1773–1781 (1963).10.1121/1.1918816Search in Google Scholar
55 Lindblom, B.: On the production and recognition of vowels; summary of doct. thesis, University of Lund (1968).Lindblom, B.: Economy of speech gestures; In MacNeilage, The production of speech (Springer, New York 1983).Search in Google Scholar
56 Lindblom, B.: Explaining phonetic variation: a sketch of the H and H theory; in Hardcastle, Marchal, Speech production and speech modeling, pp. 403–439 (Kluwer Academic, Norwell 1990).10.1007/978-94-009-2037-8_16Search in Google Scholar
57 Lindblom, B.; Lyberg, B.; Holmgren, K.: Durational patterns of Swedish phonology: do they reflect short-term motor memory processes? (Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington 1981).Search in Google Scholar
58 McDonough, J.; Austin-Garrison, M.: Vowel enhancement and dispersion in the vowel space of Western Navajo: a study of traditional Navajo speakers. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 87: 93–104 (1994)Search in Google Scholar
59 .McDonough, J.; Ladefoged, P.; George, H.: Navajo vowels and phonetic universal tendencies. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 84: 143–150 (1993).Search in Google Scholar
60 Maddieson, I.; Anderson, V.B.: Some phonetic characteristics of Iaai. Proc. Int. Congr. Phonet. Sci., vol. 3, pp. 540–543 (1994).Search in Google Scholar
61 Maddieson, I.; Spajic, S.; Sands, B.; Ladefoged, P.: Phonetic structures of Dahalo. Afrikanist. Arbeitspapiere 36: 5–53 (1993).Search in Google Scholar
62 Malmberg, B.: Die Quantität als phonetisch-phonologischer Begriff. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift N.F., Part 1, 41–42 (1944).Search in Google Scholar
63 Manuel, S.Y.: The role of contrast in limiting vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in different languages. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 88: 1286–1298 (1990).10.1121/1.399705Search in Google Scholar
64 Manuel, S.Y.; Krakow, R.A.: Universal and language particular aspects of vowel-to-vowel coarticulation. Haskins Lab. Status Rep. Speech Res., SR-77/78, pp. 69–78 (Haskins Laboratories, New Haven 1984).Search in Google Scholar
65 Marslen-Wilson, W.; Tyler, L.: The temporal structure of spoken language understanding. Cognition 8: 1–71 (1980).10.1016/0010-0277(80)90015-3Search in Google Scholar
66 Millenkovic, P.; Read, C.: CSpeech version 4 user’s manual (Madison 1992).Search in Google Scholar
67 Nakatani, L.H.; O’Connor, K.D.; Aston, C.H.: Prosodic aspects of American English speech rhythm. Phonetica 38: 84–106 (1981).10.1159/000260016Search in Google Scholar
68 Nickerson, R.S.; Stevens, K.N.; Boothroyd, A.; Rollins, A: Some observations on timing in the speech of deaf and hearing speakers. Report No. 2905 (Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Cambridge 1974).Search in Google Scholar
69 Nooteboom, S.: Production and perception of vowel duration: a study of durational properties of vowels in Dutch; PhD diss. University of Utrecht (1972).Search in Google Scholar
70 Nord, L.: Acoustic studies of vowel reduction in Swedish. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 4, pp. 19–36 (1986).Search in Google Scholar
71 Norlin, K.: Acoustic analysis of vowels and diphthongs in Cairo Arabic. Lund Univ., Dep. Ling. Working Papers 27: 185–208 (1984).Search in Google Scholar
72 Öhman, S.: Coarticulation in VCV utterances: spectrographic measurements. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 30: 149–154 (1966).Search in Google Scholar
73 Peterson, G.E.; Barney, H.L.: Control methods used in a study of vowels. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 24: 175–184 (1952).10.1121/1.1906875Search in Google Scholar
74 Pierrehumbert, J.; Talkin, D.: Lenition of /h/ and glottal stop; in Docherty, Ladd, Papers in laboratory phonology II: Gesture, segment, prosody pp. 90–127 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992).10.1017/CBO9780511519918.005Search in Google Scholar
75 Pullum, G.K.; Ladusaw, W.A.: Phonetic symbol guide (University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1986).Search in Google Scholar
76 Roudet, L.: Eléments de Phonétique Générale (Library Universitaire, Paris 1910).Search in Google Scholar
77 Shalev, M.; Ladefoged, P.; Bhaskararao, P.: Phonetics of Toda. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 84: 89–126 (1993).Search in Google Scholar
78 Shen, S.: A pilot study on the relation between temporal and syntactic structures in Mandarin. JIPA 22: 35–43 (1992).10.1017/S0025100300004576Search in Google Scholar
79 Shipman, D.W.; Zue, V.W.: Properties of large lexicons: implications for advanced isolated word recognition systems. ICASSP 82: 546–549 (1982).Search in Google Scholar
80 Shryock, A.; Ladefoged, P.; Williamson, K.: Phonetic structures of Defaka. UCLA Working Papers Phonet. 91: 89–109 (1995).Search in Google Scholar
81 Steriade, D.: Underspecification and markedness; in Goldsmith, The handbook of phonological theory, pp. 114–174 (Blackwell, Oxford 1995).Search in Google Scholar
82 Sternberg, S.; Wright, C.E.; Knoll, R.L.; Monsell, S.: Motor programs in rapid speech: additional evidence; in Cole, Perception and production of fluent speech (Erlbaum, Hillsdale 1980).Search in Google Scholar
83 Straka, G.: Durée et timbre vocalique. Z. Phonet. allg. Sprachw. 12: 276–300 (1959).10.1524/stuf.1959.12.14.276Search in Google Scholar
84 Tarnóczy, T.: Acoustic analysis of Hungarian vowels. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 4, pp. 8–12 (1964).Search in Google Scholar
85 Tarnóczy, T.: Can the problem of automatic speech recognition be solved by analysis alone? Rapports du 5e Congr. Int. d’Acoustique, vol. 2, Liège 1965.Search in Google Scholar
86 Vaissière, J.: Comment on Abbs’ paper; in Perkell, Klatt, Invariance and variability in speech processes, pp. 220– 222 (Hillsdale, LEA, 1986).Search in Google Scholar
87 Vayra, M.; Fowler, C.A.: Declination of supralaryngeal gestures in spoken Italian. Phonetica 49: 48–60 (1992).10.1159/000261902Search in Google Scholar
88 Vihman, M.M.: Phonological development: the origins of language in the child (Blackwell, Oxford 1996).Search in Google Scholar
89 Whalen, D.H.; Levitt, A.G.: The universality of intrinsic F0 of vowels. J. Phonet. 23: 349–366 (1995).10.1016/S0095-4470(95)80165-0Search in Google Scholar
90 Whiteside, S.: Temporal-based acoustic-phonetic patterns in read speech: some evidence for speaker sex differences. JIPA 26: 23–41 (1996).10.1017/S0025100300005302Search in Google Scholar
91 Zlatoustova, L.V.: Duration of vowel and consonant sounds of the Russian language. Scientific Notes of the Kazan’ State Univ. imeni V.I. Ul’yanov-Lenin 114: 99–173 (1954).Search in Google Scholar
© 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel
