The articulatory and acoustic characteristics of Polish sibilants and their consequences for diachronic change. (28th March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bukmaier, Véronique; Harrington, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Volume 46:Number 3(2016)
• Page Start: 311
• Page End: 329
• Publication Date: 2016-03-28
• Subjects: Phonetics -- Periodicals; 414.8
• DOI: 10.1017/S0025100316000062
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0025-1003

Abstract

Abstract : The study is concerned with the relative synchronic stability of three contrastive sibilant fricatives /s ʂ ɕ/ in Polish. Tongue movement data were collected from nine first-language Polish speakers producing symmetrical real and non-word CVCV sequences in three vowel contexts. A Gaussian model was used to classify the sibilants from spectral information in the noise and from formant frequencies at vowel onset. The physiological analysis showed an almost complete separation between /s ʂ ɕ/ on tongue-tip parameters. The acoustic analysis showed that the greater energy at higher frequencies distinguished /s / in the fricative noise from the other two sibilant categories. The most salient information at vowel onset was for /ɕ/, which also had a strong palatalizing effect on the following vowel. Whereas either the noise or vowel onset was largely sufficient for the identification of /s ɕ/ respectively, both sets of cues were necessary to separate /ʂ/ from /s ɕ/. The greater synchronic instability of /ʂ/ may derive from its high articulatory complexity coupled with its comparatively low acoustic salience. The data also suggest that the relatively late stage of /ʂ/ acquisition by children may come about because of the weak acoustic information in the vowel for its distinction from /s /.