Abstract
Are voiceless approximants categorically distinct from voiceless fricatives? We address this question by means of acoustic analysis of voiceless laterals in Icelandic, Welsh, and the endangered variety
Estonian Swedish. All three have a voiceless lateral functioning in contrast to a voiced lateral approximant. The analysis focused on duration – including any period of voicing (‘pre-voicing’) just
before the release of the lateral – and the intensity of the voiceless lateral relative to the following vowel. Welsh showed no pre-voicing in the lateral, whilst Icelandic and Estonian Swedish did, though
the latter less consistently. The Welsh voiceless lateral was also greater in relative intensity. This could be taken as a difference of phonetic category between a fricative [ɬ] in Welsh as against a
voiceless approximant [l̥ ] in the other two languages, but we argue that the complexity of the data from Estonian Swedish excludes a categorical interpretation.
Estonian Swedish. All three have a voiceless lateral functioning in contrast to a voiced lateral approximant. The analysis focused on duration – including any period of voicing (‘pre-voicing’) just
before the release of the lateral – and the intensity of the voiceless lateral relative to the following vowel. Welsh showed no pre-voicing in the lateral, whilst Icelandic and Estonian Swedish did, though
the latter less consistently. The Welsh voiceless lateral was also greater in relative intensity. This could be taken as a difference of phonetic category between a fricative [ɬ] in Welsh as against a
voiceless approximant [l̥ ] in the other two languages, but we argue that the complexity of the data from Estonian Swedish excludes a categorical interpretation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences |
| Publisher | University of Glasgow |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-85261-941-4 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| Event | the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVIII) - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 2015 Aug 10 → 2015 Aug 14 |
Publication series
| Name | |
|---|---|
| ISSN (Print) | 2412-0669 |
Conference
| Conference | the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVIII) |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ICPhS2015 |
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | Glasgow |
| Period | 2015/08/10 → 2015/08/14 |
Bibliographical note
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015.The record was previously connected to the following departments: Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology (013020000), Humanities Lab (015101200), Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Free keywords
- Estonian Swedish
- pre-voicing
- phonetic categories
- lateral fricative
- voiceless lateral