The Aeroacoustics of Nasalized Fricatives

ISBN-13: 9783639011999 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 128 str.

Ryan Shosted

Opis

Understanding the relationship of aerodynamic laws tothe unique geometry of the human vocal tract allowsus to make phonological and typological predictionsabout speech sounds typified by particularaerodynamic regimes. Some have argued that therealization of nasalized fricatives is improbablebecause fricatives and nasals have antagonisticaerodynamic specifications. Fricatives require highpressure behind the supralaryngealconstriction as a precondition for high particlevelocity. Nasalization, on the other hand, vents backpressure by allowing air to escape through thevelopharyngeal orifice. This implies that an openvelopharyngeal port will reduce oral particlevelocity, thereby extinguishing frication. By using amechanical model of the vocal tract and spokenfricatives that have undergone coarticulatorynasalization, it is shown that nasalization mustalter the spectral characteristics of fricatives. Itis hypothesized that nasalization generally has adeleterious effect on the acoustic distinctiveness offricatives, explaining the typological rarity ofnasalized fricatives.

O autorze

Ryan Shosted (Ph.D. UC Berkeley, 2006) is Assistant Professor of
Linguistics and Director of the Phonetics & Phonology Laboratory
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research in
experimental phonetics and phonology focuses on the ways that
phonetic principles shape phonological, typological, and
diachronic outcomes in language.