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1. Acoustic correlates of the Javanese heavy vs. light distinction: A large-scale corpus study

   Xu, S.C. Angela; Wilson, Colin (August 2023, Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences)

   Skarnitzl, Radek; Volín, Jan (Ed.)

   According to the influential continuum model of phonation, only voiced segments can be specified as creaky or breathy. The present study investigated many possible phonetic correlates of the laryngeal contrast in Javanese word-initial prevocalic stop consonants, drawing upon a spoken corpus of more than 180,000 utterances. The results indicate that the laryngeal contrast is cued by voice onset time (VOT) and several acoustic-phonetic properties of the following vowel, including the first formant (F1) in addition to voice source measurements such as H1*-H2* and cepstral peak prominence (CPP). Taken together these findings indicate that Javanese stops can be both voiceless and breathy, supporting a revision of the continuum model in which voicing and other aspects of phonation are decoupled. 

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2. Reconstruction of nasality and other aspects of A’ingae phonology

   Sanker, Chelsea; AnderBois, Scott (November 2024, Cadernos de etnolinguistica)

   We propose a reconstruction of several sound changes in the history of A’ingae, a language isolate spoken in Ecuador and Colombia, using evidence from the phonology and lexicon of the modern language. Crucial to this reconstruction process is distinguishing ordinary inherited lexical items from borrowed forms, ideophones, and forms which are morphologically complex, each of which may sometimes exhibit different patterns. The major element of the reconstruction is a set of related changes in nasality. We derive the prenasalized series of stops and affricates from the voiceless unaspirated series, based on reanalysis of preceding nasal codas, which would have been the only permitted codas other than glottal stops. The voiceless unaspirated and prenasalized series became contrastive word-initially as the result of deletion of certain word-initial nasal vowels. Coda nasals also coalesced with following glides, producing a new palatal nasal phoneme. Remaining nasal codas later developed into nasality on vowels. We also propose a set of more speculative palatalization processes, alterations to the velar approximant, and developments involving diphthongs. All of these changes have substantially altered the phonological appearance of A’ingae. Improving our understanding of the form it had further in the past may facilitate identification of its affiliation with a language family or identification of loanwords. 

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3. The Changing Sounds of Exceptionally Aspirated Diné Stops

   Palakurthy, Kayla (October 2018, University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics)

   This paper presents a phonetic analysis of variation and change in the production of voiceless aspirated stops in Diné bizaad, or Navajo, a Southern Dene language spoken in the American Southwest. Diné aspirated stops are typologically famous for having exceptionally long release periods (Cho and Ladefoged 1999), and earlier studies report that the variable aspiration carries social meaning (Reichard 1945). This study revisits phonetic measures of aspiration given increasing levels of English bilingualism in the Diné speech community. Voice onset time (VOT) and spectral center of gravity (CoG) were measured in tokens of aspirated velar and alveolar stops, elicited during interviews with 51 bilingual Diné bizaad-English speakers of different ages, genders, regions, and linguistic backgrounds. Results indicate that the releases of aspirated /kh/ have shortened when compared with earlier studies, while releases of aspirated /th/ have not, likely due to the salience of their affrication rendering them perceptibly distinct from English /t/. Mixed-effects linear regression models show that region, age, and gender are significant predictors of variation and that there are ongoing changes led by women, a frequent pattern in sociolinguistics, but notable here due to its relevance in an indigenous minority language community, a rare site for variationist sociolinguistic research. Overall these findings suggest that despite encroaching language shift, Diné bizaad is not simply converging with English, and results underscore the importance of perceptual awareness in analyses of subphonemic linguistic change. 

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4. Quantifying Lenition as a Diagnostic Marker for Parkinson’s Disease and Atypical Parkinsonism

   https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedinformatics4040123  

   Wayland, Ratree; Meyer, Rachel; Reddy, Ruhi; Tang, Kevin; Hegland, Karen W (December 2024, BioMedInformatics)

   Objective: This study aimed to evaluate lenition, a phonological process involving consonant weakening, as a diagnostic marker for differentiating Parkinson’s Disease (PD) from Atypical Parkinsonism (APD). Early diagnosis is critical for optimizing treatment outcomes, and lenition patterns in stop consonants may provide valuable insights into the distinct motor speech impairments associated with these conditions. Methods: Using Phonet, a machine learning model trained to detect phonological features, we analyzed the posterior probabilities of continuant and sonorant features from the speech of 142 participants (108 PD, 34 APD). Lenition was quantified based on deviations from expected values, and linear mixed-effects models were applied to compare phonological patterns between the two groups. Results: PD patients exhibited more stable articulatory patterns, particularly in preserving the contrast between voiced and voiceless stops. In contrast, APD patients showed greater lenition, particularly in voiceless stops, coupled with increased articulatory variability, reflecting a more generalized motor deficit. Conclusions: Lenition patterns, especially in voiceless stops, may serve as non-invasive markers for distinguishing PD from APD. These findings suggest potential applications in early diagnosis and tracking disease progression. Future research should expand the analysis to include a broader range of phonological features and contexts to improve diagnostic accuracy. 

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5. How Good Does This Sound? Examining Listeners’ Second Language Proficiency and Their Perception of Category Goodness in Their Native Language

   https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010043  

   Nagle, Charlie; Baese-Berk, Melissa M.; Diantoro, Carissa; Kim, Haeun (March 2023, Languages)

   Language learners often transfer the sounds and prosody of their native language into their second language, but this influence can also flow in the opposite direction, with the second language influencing the first. Among other variables, language proficiency is known to affect the degree and directionality of cross-linguistic influence. However, little is known about how second language learning affects listeners’ perception of their native language. To begin addressing this gap, we examined the relationship between learners’ second language proficiency and their category goodness ratings in their native language. Thirty-nine English-speaking learners of Spanish listened to English words that began with voiced and voiceless stop consonants and were asked to rate how well the word represented the intended word on a 5-point scale. To create a voicing continuum, we manipulated the voice onset time of the word-initial stop in each target item from 125 ms of prevoicing to 100 ms of aspiration, in 25 ms steps. Proficiency did not affect the perception of voiced targets, but both proficiency and L2 stop production affected the perception of voiceless targets. 

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