Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration

14 Pages·2014·0.57 MB·English

by  Hanna Ruch

JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25
ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect
Journal of Phonetics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/phonetics
Synchronic and diachronic factors in the change from pre-aspiration
to post-aspiration in Andalusian Spanish
⁎
Hanna Ruch , Jonathan Harrington
InstituteofPhoneticsandSpeechProcessing,Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversityofMunich,Schellingstr.3,D80799München,Germany
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Articlehistory: Thestudyisconcernedwiththemechanismsbywhichpre-andpost-aspirationarerelatedsynchronicallyand
Received4April2012 diachronically in Andalusian Spanish. An analysis of isolated word productions by 24 speakers of a Western
Receivedinrevisedform Andalusianandby24ofanEasternAndalusianvarietyeachdividedintotwoagegroupsprovidedevidencefora
16February2014 soundchangeinprogress:youngerspeakersandthoseoftheWesternAndalusianvarietyweremorelikelyto
Accepted28February2014
produce/st/withashorterpre-aspirationandwithalongerpost-aspirationphasethantheirolderandEastern
Andalusiancounterparts.Theresultsoffurtherbetween-groupdurationanalysesshowthatthesoundchange
Keywords: cannotbeentirelyexplainedbyarealignmentfromananti-phasetoanin-phasetimingrelationshipbetweenthe
Pre-aspiration closureandglottalopening;theyalsoprovideevidenceforthedevelopmentofatradingrelationshipbetweenthe
/s/-Aspiration
durationoftheclosureandthedurationofpost-aspiration.Inordertotestwhetherperceptualfactorsmighthave
Soundchange
contributed to this sound change, a perception experiment was carried out. Listeners of Argentinian Spanish
AndalusianSpanish
judgedstimuliofaminimalpairpasta-patawithvariablepre-aspirationdurationinaforced-choiceperceptiontest.
VOT
Whenthecontinuumwassynthesizedwithaslightlypost-aspiratedstoprelease,listenersweremoreinclinedto
perceivepasta,whichsuggeststhat post-aspirationisparsedwithpre-aspiration andservesasacueforthe
underlying/st/eveninanon-post-aspiratingvarietyofSpanish.
&2014ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.
1. Introduction
Aspirationisproducedwhentheabductionofthevocalfoldsforavoicelessobstruent,typicallyastop,istimedasynchronouslywithrespecttothe
oralconstrictionandisanticipated/prolongedduringthepreceding/followingsonorant.Inthevastmajorityoflanguagesinwhichaspirationoccurs,it
typicallyfollowstheobstruentreleaseandthestopissaidtobepost-aspirated;butoccasionallyandmuchmorerarely,languageshavebeenshownto
havepre-aspiratedstopsinwhichtheaperiodicenergythatcharacterizesaspirationacousticallyprecedesthestopclosure.Insomelanguages,such
astheNortherndialectofIcelandic,pre-aspiratedstopsarephonologicallycontrastivetopost-aspiratedstopsword-medially(Helgason,2002,186),
but in Southern Icelandic and in other cases there is phonetic variation between pre- and post-aspirated stops: thus Silverman (2003) presents
examples of a Mexican language Tarascan (based on Foster, 1969) and of Gaelic (based on Borgstrøm, 1940) in which pre-aspirated and post-
aspirated stops have a complementary distribution between word-medial and word-initial position respectively (see also Helgason, 2002, for
an extensive review of the occurrence and distribution of pre-aspiration in the world's languages). The phonetic characteristics of pre-aspiration,
comparedtothoseofpost-aspiration,arereportedtobehighlyvariable,bothbetweenthefewlanguagesinwhichitoccursandevenwithinthesame
languagegroup(Silverman,2003).Itsvariabilitymaycomeaboutbecausetheconditionsthathavegivenrisetopre-aspirationhistoricallyarealso
varied:thuswhereaspre-aspirationinIcelandic/hphthk/hasdevelopedhistoricallyfromOldNorsegeminates/p:t:k:/(Hansson,2001;seealso
Stevens,2010foranalogousdevelopmentsinsomeItalianvarieties),insomevarietiesofEnglish,inwhichpre-aspirationhasbeenshowntohavea
sociolinguisticfunction,ithasbeenbroughtaboutpredominantlyasaresultofpre-obstruentvoweldevoicing(Docherty&Foulkes,1999).Thetypeof
pre-aspiration inAndalusianSpanishthatis themainfocus ofthepresentstudy hasyet another originwhichis dueto thedebuccalization ofthe
fricative in /s/+voiceless stop sequences, a phenomenon known as /s/-aspiration, either word-medially (casco [ˈkahko] ‘helmet’, caspa [ˈkahpa]
‘dandruff’,pasta[ˈpahta]‘paste,pasta’)oracrosswordboundaries(lastapas[lahˈtapah]‘thelids’,losperros[lohˈperoh]‘thedogs’,máscaro[mah
ˈkaɾo]‘moreexpensive’)./s/-aspirationisnotlimitedto/s/+voicelessstopssequencesinAndalusianSpanishbutmayaffectanysyllablefinal/s/or/θ/
(e.g.isla[ˈihla]‘island’;capaz[kaˈpah]‘able’).Weakeningofsyllable-finalfricativesisacommonphenomenoninmanylanguages,andaspirationas
nCorrespondingauthor.Nowat:URPPLanguageandSpace,UniversityofZurich,Plattenstr.54,CH8032Zürich,Switzerland.Tel.:[phone].
E-mailaddress:[email protected](H.Ruch).
0095-4470/$-seefrontmatter&2014ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2014.02.009
H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25 13
aresultofvoicelessfricativelenitionis reportedfor anumberofotherlanguagesandRomancedialects(seeSolé, 2010,for anoverviewandan
explanationbasedonanaerodynamicaccount).
/s/-aspirationoccursinnumerousvarietiesofSpanish:ForEuropeanSpanishithasbeendocumentedmainlyinthesouthofSpain,butithasbeen
shownrecentlythatthephenomenonisextendingtocentralvarietiesofSpain(CaleroFernández,1993;Momcilovic,2009).ForAmericanSpanish,
/s/-weakeningoccursinCaribbeanandSouthAmericanvarietiessuchasChileanandArgentinianSpanishandinsomeCentralAmericandialects
(see e.g. Canfield, 1981; Lipski, 1994, for an overview). Sociolinguistic and linguistic factors have also beenshown to influence the realization of
coda-/s/.Theweakeningof/s/typicallyoccursinaword-medialpre-consonantalpositionbutitmayalsooccursyllable-initially(e.g.cincocentavos
[ˈsiŋkohenˈtaβo]inDominicanSpanish,JiménezSabater,1975,77).Thereisconsiderableagreementthatweakeningcomesaboutpre-consonantally
andword-mediallybeforeitspreadstoothercontextsbeforevowelsorpauses(Alba,1990;CaleroFernández,1993;Cedergren,1978;Momcilovic,
2009;SamperPadilla,2011;Terrell,1979,1981).Thereisalsoconsiderablephoneticvariationinsyllable-final/s/-weakeninginSpanish:itcanbe
producedasafullalveolarfricative,or[h],ordeleted,dependingonphonologicalcontext(e.g.Alther,1935;Marrero,1990;Sánchez-Muñoz,2004),
socialfactors(e.g.Cedergren,1978;Lafford,1986),anddialect.
ForAndalusianSpanish,/s/-lenitionisverycommon(CarboneroCano,1982;MoyaCorral,1979;VillenaPonsoda,2008)andispresumed–as
inferred from transcriber errors – to have existed since at least the 16th century (Lapesa, 1986; for a review see Romero, 1995b). In Western
AndalusianSpanish(WAS),numerousvariantsof/sp,st,sk/arepossibleincludingwithpre-aspirationorbreathyvoicing,withclosurelengthening,
andwithpost-aspiration(O'Neill,2010;Parrell,2012;Torreira,2007a,2007b,2012).Althoughdegreeofpost-aspirationwasfoundtobeaffectedby
placeofarticulation(Torreira,2012),resultsofTorreira(2007a,2012)suggestpost-aspirationoccursinallthreestoptypesinWesternAndalusian
Spanish.
Torreira(2007a)acousticallyanalysed/sp,st,sk/inthreevarietiesofSpanish:PuertoRican,ArgentinianandWesternAndalusianSpanish.He
observedlongervoiceonsettime(VOT)andshorterpre-aspirationfortheAndalusianspeakers,comparedtotheothertwovarieties.VOTwasalso
longerin/sp,st,sk/thanintherespectivesingletonsor/lC/sequencesintheAndalusianvariety.Torreira(2007b)compared/sp,st,sk/sequencesof
threeWesternAndalusianandthreeCastilianspeakers(avarietyinwhich/s/isnotaspirated)andfound,asinTorreira(2007a),longpost-aspiration
fortheAndalusian,butnotfortheCastilianspeakers,andconsiderablevariationinhowpre-aspirationwasrealized.Heconcludedthatpost-aspiration
inAndalusianSpanishwastheresultofcoarticulationandextensivearticulatoryoverlap,andproposedanon-goingsoundchangefrompre-topost-
aspirationfortheAndalusianvariety.
ForEasternAndalusianSpanish(EAS),thephonologicalcontrast/st,sk/vs./t,k/seemsnottodependonpost-aspirationdifferences,butinstead
on either how the stopclosure and preceding vowelduration are related or on the presence of pre-aspiration or breathy voicein /sC/sequences
(Gerfen,2002).AstudybyO'Neill(2010)alsofoundthat,whereasinthetwocitiesofWesternAndalusia(Seville,Cádiz)/s/+stopwasrealizedwith
considerablepost-aspiration,forthoseinEasternAndalusia(Granada,Almería)alongerstopclosuredurationwasfound.Between60%(Granada)
and70%(Seville)ofintervocalic/p,t,k/stopswerefoundbycontrasttohaveavoicedorpartlyvoicedclosure(O'Neill,2010,33).Similarfindingsare
reported in Torreira & Ernestus (2011) for /p, t, k/ in spontaneous Madrid Spanish. A further phenomenon that has been documented for Eastern
AndalusianSpanishistheuseofvowellowering(andfrontinginthecaseof/a/)inthecontextof/s/-lenition(e.g.tienes‘youhave’[ˈtjɛnɛ])whichmay
beaccompaniedbyvowellengtheningand/orvowelharmony(Narbona,Cano,&Morillo,2003,170;seeMartínezMelgar,1994foraphoneticstudyof
vowelharmonyinEasternAndalusianSpanish).
Inarecentproductionstudy,Torreira(2012)testedifVOTincreasedwithstressanddecreasedatslowerspeechratesinWesternAndalusian
Spanishjustasitdoesinlanguagesinwhichpost-aspiratedstopsarephonemic(Kessinger&Blumstein,1997).Neitherspeechratenorlexicalstress
hadaconsistenteffectonpost-aspiration.Instead,Torreira(2012)observedanegativecorrelationbetweenthecombineddurationofpre-aspiration
andclosuredurationandthedurationofpost-aspiration;hisconclusionfromtheseresultswasthatpost-aspirationwasmorelikelytobephoneticand
theresultofextensivearticulatoryoverlapandnotaprincipalcuetothe/p,t,k/vs./sp,st,sk/distinction(Torreira,2012,61).
SeveralstudieshavesuggestedasoundchangeinprogressintheWesternvarietyofAndalusianSpanishbywhichpre-aspirationmaybegiving
waytopost-aspirationoraffrication(MoyaCorral,2007;O'Neill,2010;Ruch,2012;Torreira,2007a,b).However,thisquestionhasnotsofarbeen
addressedsystematically.OneofthemainaimsinthisstudyistoassesswhetherinAndalusianSpanishthereisasoundchangeinprogressfrom
pre-topost-aspiration.Parrell(2012)carriedoutasynchronicstudyofchangeinspeechratetotestwhethersuchashiftfrompre-topost-aspiration
canbeexpressedintermsofamodelofgesturalre-phasingbetweentheopenglottisandclosureoftheoralstopduring/s/+voicelessstopclusters.
According to this model which is inspired by articulatory phonology (Browman & Goldstein, 1992; Goldstein, Byrd, & Saltzman, 2006), the
synchronisationbetweenglottalopeningandtheoralclosureinproducingpre-aspiratedstopsisanti-phase(becausetheoralclosureislateinrelation
totheonsetoftheglottalopeningin/st/clusters),butitisin-phaseinproducingpost-aspiratedstops(inwhichtheonsetofglottalopeningandtheoral
closureonsetaresynchronised).1Anti-phasetimingrelationshipsareingeneralmoreunstablethanthosethatarein-phasenotonlyinspeech(Marin
&Pouplier,2010;Nam,Goldstein,&Saltzman,2010)butalsoinothertypesofskilledaction,suchasfingertapping(Kelso,1984;Turvey,1990)but
alsoinothertypesofskilledaction,suchasfingertapping(Kelso,1984;Turvey,1990):consequently,timingchangesbywhichpre-aspirationchanges
topost-aspirationsynchronicallyanddiachronicallyshouldbeprobable,ormoresothanintheotherdirectioninwhichtimingrelationshipswouldbe
changedfromin-phasetoanti-phase.OneofthemainpredictionsofthismodelthatistestedinbothParrell(2012)andTorreira(2012)isthatthe
durationofpre-andpost-aspirationshouldbeinverselycorrelatedasthecoordinationbetweentheoralclosureandglottalspreadingswitchesfrom
anti-phasetoin-phase.Someevidenceinsupportofthisideaisprovidedinbothofthesestudies:InParrell's(2012)analysisofthe/st/clusterin
pastándola(‘grazingit’)producedatdifferentratesby20subjects,durationalmeasurementsofpre-andpost-aspirationwerefoundtobenegatively
correlated.Torreira(2012)found,asmentionedabove,thedurationofthecombinedpre-aspirationandstopclosuretobenegativelycorrelatedwith
thedurationofpost-aspirationinproductionsofvarious/sp,st,sk/clustersproducedbythreenativespeakersofWesternAndalusianSpanish.
Our second aim in the present study is to assess whether this synchronic evidence for a change from an anti-phase to an in-phase timing
relationshipprovidedby Parrell(2012)canalsobeobserveddiachronicallyas inferredfromcomparisonsbetweenyoungerandolderspeakersof
Andalusian Spanish on some of these measures. Another is to seek to resolve a controversy regarding closure duration in the course of this
realignment between oral and glottal gestures. This issue is both controversial and unresolved because on the one hand, the closure duration is
predicted to remain constant during changesto glottal-supraglottal coordination, as noted by Parrell (2012): “since the phase shift is independent
of the duration of the gestures involved, there should be no changes in the oral constriction gesture itself”. On the other hand, the closure of
1However,asareviewernotes,itshouldbekeptinmindthatananti-phaserelationshipcorrespondstotheplannedvoicelessfricative+stopsequence.
14 H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25
/s/+voicelessstopclustersinWesternAndalusianSpanishhasbeenshowntobelongerthanbothintervocalicstopclosuresofthesamevarietyand
longerthantheclosuresthatoccurin/s/+voicelessstopclustersinothervarietiesofSpanish(Torreira,2007a).ForTorreira(2012,53),thisfindingofa
lengthened closure provides a challenge for an explanation of pre- to post-aspiration change based entirely on phase relationships because it is
“difficulttoimaginehowadelayed[h]glottalgestureinan[hp]clusterorareducedandoverlappedtongue-tipgestureinan[sp]clustermightleadto
anonlinelengtheningoftheupcoming[p]closureproducedatthelips”.Torreira(2012,61)suggeststhatthislengtheningofthesupraglottalgesture
mayhaveariseninorderto“compensatefortherealignmentof[h]withrespecttoupcomingconsonants”,andpointstovariousstudiesthatreport
lengtheningoftheconsonantfollowinganaspiratedordeleted/s/forWesternAndalusianSpanish(e.g.Mondéjar,2001;Romero,1995a).However,
longer closures in /st/-clusters than in intervocalic /t/ are also reported for the Eastern Andalusian variety by Gerfen (2002), and are described in
dialectologicalstudiesnotonlyforAndalusian/sp,st,sk/(Alther,1935;Alvar,1955)butalsoforCubanSpanish/s/+voicelessstopsequences(Ruiz
Hernández&MiyaresBermúdez,1984).ItseemsthusunlikelythatthelongstopclosureinWASistheresultofcompensationfortherealignment
with[h].
While Parrell (2012) notes that gestural re-phasing “does not predict any changes in the closure duration for the stop”, he nevertheless also
suggests,referringtophoneticuniversals(Maddieson,1997),thattheclosuredurationmightvaryinverselywithpost-aspirationontheassumption
thatthedurationoftheglottal spreadinggestureis invariant. Parrell's(2012)resultsof thechangesdueto ratedemonstratejustsuch anegative
association between closure and post-aspiration duration. His findings are in line with Torreira (2007b) who also observed a negative (but not
significant)correlationbetweenVOTandclosuredurationfor/sk/and/st/,andattributedthisrelationshiptouniversalarticulatoryconstraints(suchas
aerodynamicfactorsortheconstantdurationofaglottalcycle:seeCho&Ladefoged,1999).Thenegativecorrelationbetweenclosuredurationand
VOTisalsonotinlinewithTorreira's(2012)assumptionofcompensatorylengtheningmentionedabove.
Thus,thereisevidentlyconfusionaboutthedurationalchangestotheclosureaspre-aspirationwanesandpost-aspirationincreasesgivenfirstly
thepredictionthatitshouldremainunchanged,secondlythedemonstrationbyTorreira(2007a,b)ofalongclosuredurationinWesternAndalusian
Spanish,andthirdlyParrell's(2012)otherfindingthattheclosuredurationshortensaspost-aspirationdurationlengthens.Inthepresentstudy,oneof
theaimswillbetoinferfromourapparent-timeinvestigationwhetherthereisanyevidencethatthehypotheticaldiachronicchangefrompre-topost-
aspirationinAndalusianSpanish/st/clustersisassociatedwithachangeinthedurationoftheoralclosure.
Theattemptssofartoexplaintheemergenceofpost-aspiratedstopsinAndalusianSpanishwereallbasedonarticulatoryaccounts.Butthereis
alsocompellingevidencethatthesourceofthesynchronicinstabilityleadingtomanytypesofdiachronicchangedependsonauditoryfactors(Beddor,
2009; Ohala,1993).Accordingto perceptually-basedmodelsof soundchange(Ohala,1993),a post-aspirated releaseintheproductionof a pre-
aspiratedstopmayleadtosomeconfusionforthelistenerintheserialorderoftheaspirationandclosure(seealsoGarrett&Blevins,2004,foran
interpretationofcertainkindsofmetathesisinvolvingfricativesasduetoaperceptualconfusionintheserialorderatwhichthefricativeisproducedin
relationtotheothersegments).Accordingtosuchamodel,theemergenceofpost-aspirationmightbeperceptuallyconfusedwithpre-aspirationand
thereforeinterpretedasa(post-vocalic)underlying/s/.
Insummary,therearethreemainaimsofthisstudy.ThefirstistocompareyoungerandolderspeakersofAndalusianSpanishonthedurationof
pre-andpost-aspirationin/st/clustersinorderassesswhetherthereisasoundchangeinprogressinthisvarietyofSpanish(Section2).Thesecond
aimistoassesstheplausibilityofgesturalre-phasingasthebasisforthediachronicchangefrompre-topost-aspiration,andtotestwhetherthe
synchronic change found by Parrell (2012) under fast speech by which pre-aspiration changes into post-aspiration (assuming minimal change to
closureduration)mightbethebasisforthediachronicchange(Section3).Thethirdaimistoassesswhetherthelengtheningofpost-aspirationmight
haveaperceptualbasis(Section4).
Thefirst two aims will additionally be tested in two separate but closelyrelated varieties: Western Andalusian Spanish whichis spoken in the
provincesofCádiz,Huelva,Málaga,andSeville;andEasternAndalusianwhichisspokeninAlmería,Córdoba,Granada,andJaén(Mondéjar,2001).
Thepurpose of doingso wastoprovideanindicationof thesizeof thediachronicchangeintheWesternAndalusianvariety, giventhat,withthe
possibleexceptionsofMoyaCorral(1979)andO'Neill(2010),therearenoreportseitherthat/sp,st,sk/arepost-aspirated,northatachangefrom
pre-topost-aspirationistakingplaceinEasternAndalusianSpanish.
2. Theproductionofpre-aspirationandpost-aspiration
2.1. Method
Werecruited48subjectsfromAndalusia:24fromthecityofSeville,partofWesternAndalusia,and24fromthecityofGranada,partofEastern
Andalusia.Foreachofthesetwovarieties,therewasayoungergroup(agerangebetween20and36years)andanoldergroup(agerange55–79
years).Thefourspeakergroups–olderandyoungerspeakersofWesternandEasternAndalusia–wereequallydistributedingender(sixwomenand
sixmenineachgroup),and,asfaraspossible,ineducationallevel.Allsubjectsofourstudyhadlivedforatleastthelast20yearsintheirplaceof
residence,SevilleorGranada,withtheexceptionofsixspeakerswholivedinthenearbysurroundingareaoftherespectivecity.
Thematerialsincludedfourisolatedwordsthatcontained/st/sequencesandtwowordswith/t/stopsthatalloccurredintervocalicallyin/e_a/in
trisyllabicwordswithlexicalstressonthesecondsyllable.Thefour/st/sequencesoccurredinthewordsestaba(/esˈtaba/,‘tobe’,1st/3rdperson
singular,imperfectpast),estado(/esˈtado/,‘state’),estanco(/esˈtanko/,‘kiosk’),andpestaña(/pesˈtaɲa/,‘eyelash’);thetwointervocalic/t/stopsin
amatchedvocaliccontextoccurredinthewords(henceforth/t/-words)etapa(/eˈtapa/,‘period’, ‘stage’)andretara(/reˈtaɾa/,‘tochallenge’, 1st/3rd
person singular, past subjunctive). Each of these six words was repeated three times resulting in 6 (words)×3 (repetitions)×48 (speakers) 864
¼
/V (s)tV /targetwordtokens.Inadditiontothe6targetwords,therewere130itemscontainingintervocalicsingletonstops,/sC/-sequencesorstop
1 2
clusterswhichwererecordedforarelatedstudy,and45itemsforanindependentproject,whichatthesametimeservedasfillersforourstudy.Each
ofthese181wordswasrepeatedthreetimesinarandomisedorder,resultinginatotalof543wordsforeachspeaker.
Subjectsreadeachitemdisplayedindividuallyonacomputermonitorataconstantratewhichwasfixedatjustover40itemsperminute.The
recordingswerecarriedoutwiththeSpeechRecordersoftware(Draxler&Jänsch,2004),usingaportablecomputerandaCakewalkUA-25EXCV2
orM-AudioMobilePreUSBdevice,andaheadsetmicrophoneBeyerdynamicOpus54.16-3.Wheneverpossible,therecordingswerecarriedoutin
thephoneticslaboratoryoftheUniversityofSevilleorintheradiostudioofGranadaUniversity;ifnot,welookedforaquietroominthesubjects'
residenceorworkplace.Atthebeginningoftherecordings,speakerswereaskedtospeakintheirdialectinanaturalwayandasiftheyweretalking
toafriend.
H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25 15
V1.i V1.f ci cf V2.i
Hz) 6
k
y (
nc 4
ue
q
Fre 2
50 ms
Fig.1. Waveformandspectrogramoftheproductionofestaba.V1.iandV1.faretheacousticonsetandoffsetoftheword-initialvowel,V2.iistheacousticonsetof/a/.Theacousticonset
andoffsetoftheclosureareciandcfrespectively.VTTisdefinedasci−V1.fandVOTasV2.i−cf.
Fromthese864/V (s)tV /targetitems,73werediscarded,eitherbecausethewordhadbeenincorrectlyread(adifferentwordwasproducedfrom
1 2
theonethatwasdisplayedonthescreen)orbecauseofhesitationsorfalsestarts.Afurther33werediscardedbecauseV wascompletelyaperiodic
1
sothatnoframesofpitchdatacouldbecalculated.Fortheremaining758/V (s)tV /tokens,thespeechdataweredigitizedat44,100Hzandinitially
1 2
segmentedautomaticallywiththeMunichAutomaticSegmentationSystem(MAuS;Schiel,2004).TheMAuS-segmentationwasbasedonabroad
phonetictranscriptionofthetargetwordstakingintoaccountthetypicalAndalusianpronunciationforms(ofe.g.[ehˈtaðo]forestado).Theboundaries
werethen readjustedmanuallyto providesegmentboundariesfor theonset of V (V ),the offset of V (V ) and theonset (c) and offset (c) of
1 1.i 2 2.f i f
the/t/-closure.V andV weremarkedatthebeginningandendofperiodicityrespectivelybyinspectingthewaveform;c wasmarked,asjudged
1.i 2.f i
fromwaveformandspectrographicdisplays,wheretheenergydecreasedclearly,andc wasmarkedatthereleaseofthetargetstop(Fig.1).Theaim
f
ofthisprocedurewastofindasemi-automaticandgradientwaytodeterminevoiceterminationtime(VTT)asameasureforpre-aspirationduration,
andvoiceterminationtime(VOT)asameasureforpost-aspirationduration.
Oncetheseboundarieshadbeenmarked,twopitchtrackers,onebasedonESPS/wavesandtheotheronScheffers(1983),bothofwhicharepart
oftheEmuspeechdatabasesystem(Harrington,2010),wereusedtocalculateautomaticallytheacousticoffsetofV (V )andtheacousticonsetof
1 1.f
V (V ).TheacousticoffsetofV wasmarkedatthecalculatedcessationofperiodicityinframesofpitchdata(interval5ms)workingforwardsintime
2 2.i 1
betweenV andc.Asubsequentinspectionofwaveform/spectrographicdisplaysshowedthattheESPS/wavespitch-trackerwasmorereliablethan
1.i f
thealgorithmbasedonScheffers(1983)formarkingthecessationofperiodicitywhenthevoicingoffsetprecededc,theacousticonsetofthestop
i
closure(i.e.incasesinwhichthestopclosurewasfullyvoiceless).Butifperiodicityextendedintotheclosure,thenthealgorithmbasedonScheffers
(1983)morereliablydetectedwhenperiodicityceased(whereastheESPS/wavespitch-trackerwouldoftendeclaretheentireclosuretobevoiced,
eventhoughtherewasnoevidenceofthisfromvisualdisplays).2Accordingly,V wasdefinedasthepointatwhichperiodicityceasedascalculated
1.f
bytheESPS/wavespitchtrackerifthistimepointprecededc,butotherwisefromthepitchtrackerbasedonScheffers(1983).TheonsetofV was
i 2
calculatedinanexactlyanalogouswaybutworkingbackwardsintimebetweenV andc.
2.f f
Finally,the368tokensof/V stV /-wordsforwhichthe/s/-durationwasgreaterthanzero(i.e.forwhichc>V )wereauditorilyclassifiedbythefirst
1 2 i 1.f
authorofthispaperaccordingtowhetherthemedialclusterwasjudgedtohavebeenproducedinoneofthreeways:eitheras[st](thefirstconsonant
wasproducedwithanalveolarfricative);oras[ht](thefirstconsonantwaslenitedto[h]);oras[0t](thefirstconsonantwasdeleted).Ouraimwasto
removeasmanyofthefirstcategoryproducedwithanalveolarfricativeaspossiblefromfurtherconsiderationusinganautomatic,acoustictechnique.
Inordertodoso,k-meansclustering(Hartigan&Wong,1979)wasappliedtothemeanzero-crossingdensitycalculatedovertheintervalbetweenV
1.f
andc:themotivationforthisparameterwasthatanalveolarfricativetendstohaveenergyconcentratedinahigherfrequencyrange(asaresultof
i
whichthezero-crossingdensityishigher)thanpre-aspiratedfricationi.e.thanfricationfromalenited/s/.Thedesiredoutputofthek-meansclustering
algorithmwasthatonegroupwouldcontain/st/sequencesthathadbeenjudgedauditorilytohavebeenproducedwithanalveolarfricative;andthat
theothergroupderivedfromk-meansclusteringwouldcontainpredominantlythetokensauditorilylabelledas[ht]or[0t].AsTable1shows,oneofthe
twogroupsoutputfromk-meansclusteringcontained54/75tokensthatwehadauditorilyclassifiedas[s]andtwotokensthatwehadnot.These56
tokensinthisgroupwereremovedfromfurtheranalysis.
Thefinalbreakdownoftheremaining702tokensthatwereanalysedinthispaperisshowninTable2.Weusehenceforththeshorthandnotation
ht-wordstorefertotheremainingtokensproducedforthelargepartwithalenited/aspirated/s/inestaba,estado,estanco,pestaña(row1ofTable2);
andt-wordstorefertoetapaandretara(row2ofTable2).
ForalltokensinTable2,wedefinedvoiceterminationtime(VTT)asthedurationbetweenthecessationofperiodicityinV andtheonsetofthe
1
followingclosurei.e.VTT¼ci−V1.f(Fig.1).VTTwastypically(butnotexclusively)positiveinht-words(i.e.,periodicityceasedbeforetheonsetofthe
2TheESPS/Wavesalgorithmisbasedoncomputingthenormalizedcross-correlationfunction(NCCF)atlowandhighsamplesratesofthespeechsignalandthenusingdynamic
programmingtoselectthesetofNCCFpeaksorunvoicedhypotheses(Talkin,1995).Thepurposeofusingdynamicprogrammingistoincorporatecontinuityconstraintsacrossadjacent
framestoreducepitchdoublingandhalvingerrors.Thealgorithmisalsobasedonatwo-statevoiced/unvoicedclassification.Bycontrast,thealgorithminScheffers(1983)isbasedon
findingauditorilyweightedharmonicsinFFTspectraandusesaso-calledharmonicsievetoidentifycomponentsthatbearaharmonicrelationtooneanother.Thereasonwhythetwopitch
algorithmsperformdifferentlyhasnotyetbeensystematicallyinvestigated.ItispossibleforthepresentdatathattheESPS/Wavesalgorithmperformedlessaccuratelyindetectingthe
offsetofperiodicityintheclosurebecause“inthesecases…highcorrelationsmaybeobservedthatcanleadtoanincorrectvoicingdecision”(Talkin,1995).Otherfactorsmaybedueto
theusedynamicprogrammingintheESPS/Wavesalgorithmwhichmightover-estimatethedurationforwhichsuccessiveframesintheclosurearevoicedorbecausethebinaryvoicedvs.
unvoiceddetectionislessaccurateindetectingthecessationofvoicingforverylowamplitude,quasi-periodicsignalsthattypicallyoccurduringtheclosure.
16 H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25
Table1
Comparisonbetweenauditorylabels(columns;st,ht,0t)andautomaticclassification(rows;groups1,2,3).Thefirsttworowsincludethenumbersoftokens(inestaba,estado,estanco,
pestaña)forwhichci>V1.f(i.e.voicingendedbeforeclosurebeginning)separatedintotwogroupsbyk-meansclustering.Thethirdrowshowsthenumbersoftokensinthesamewordsnot
analysedbyk-meansclusteringforwhichVTT<5ms.Thenumbersarebrokendownbyvariety,age-group,andauditorylabel.Numbersinboldarethoseinwhichtheautomaticand
auditoryanalysesdisagreed(inwhich/st/,producedaccordingtotheauditoryanalysiswithafullalveolarfricative,wasassignedtogroup2;orinwhich/st/,producedaccordingtothe
auditoryanalysiswithpre-aspirationoranelidedsyllablefinal/s/,wasincludedingroup1).All56tokensingroup1werediscardedfromfurtheranalysis.
Group EastAndalusian WestAndalusian Σ
Younger Older Younger Older
Label: st ht 0t st ht 0t st ht 0t st ht 0t
1(Higherzcr) 14 0 0 14 1 1 9 0 0 17 0 0 56
2(Lowerzcr) 2 50 24 7 64 17 1 24 37 11 51 24 312
3(VTT<5ms) 0 1 35 0 0 17 0 2 17 0 6 55 133
Σ 16 51 59 21 65 35 10 26 54 28 57 79 501
Table2
Thefirstrow(ht-words)showsthenumberofremainingtokensinestaba,estado,estanco,pestañathatwereincludedintheanalysis(thesearethesumsofrows
2and3inTable1)byagegroupandvariety.Thesecondrow(t-words)showsthedistributionoftokensinetapaandretarathatwerealsoanalysed.
Category Variety
EastAndalusian WestAndalusian Σ
Agegroup: Younger Older Younger Older
ht-Words 112 105 81 147 445
t-Words 69 61 65 62 257
Σ 181 166 146 209 702
closure)whereasint-words,VTTwasclosetozeroornegative(voicingfromV extendedintotheclosure).Wedefinedvoiceonsettime(VOT)also
1
foralltokensinTable2asthedurationbetweentheoffsetoftheclosureandtheonsetofperiodicityi.e.VOT V –c.Itturnedoutthatforalltokens,
¼ 2.i f
VOTwaspositive.3
The results below are based on tests of whether VTT was smaller in younger speakers and VOT larger as a reflection of a sound change in
progressbywhichpre-aspiration(asinferredfromVVT)iswaningandpost-aspiration(asinferredfromVOT)isincreasinginht-wordsinthesetwo
varietiesofAndalusianSpanish.Thehypothesiswasalsotestedthatthedistinctionbetweenht-wordsandt-wordswouldbebasedforolderspeakers
predominantlyonVTT(ontheassumptionthattheyproducedht-wordswithlongpre-aspiration)butforyoungerspeakersonVOT(assumingthatfor
them,ht-wordswereproducedwithlongpost-aspiration).
2.2. Results
WepresenttheresultseparatelyforVTT,closureduration,andVOTbelow.Themeanvaluesandstandarddeviationsontheseparametersforthe
categoriesthatwereanalysedareshowninTable3.
Fig.2showsbothalargerVTTforolderthanyoungerspeakersandthattheVTT-differencebetweenht-wordsandt-wordswaslargerforolder
speakers.AmixedmodelinR(RDevelopmentCoreTeam,2012)wasappliedtoall702tokens(Table2)withVTTasthedependentvariable,with
fixedfactorsage(oldvs.young),variety(WesternvsEasternAndalusianSpanish),andword-type(twolevels:ht-wordsvs.t-words);andwiththe
speaker (48 levels) and word (6 levels) as random factors. Since the three-way interaction between the fixed factors was not significant, it was
removedfromthemodel.Thisupdatedmodelwithoutthethree-wayinteractionthenshowedthatVTTwassignificantlyinfluencedbyage(χ2 20.7,
3¼
p<0.001)andbyword-type(χ2 22.8,p<0.001);thissecondresultcomesaboutbecause,asisevidentfromFig.2,VTTwassignificantlylargerin
3¼
ht-wordsthanint-words.TheinfluenceofvarietyonVTTwasnotsignificant.Theonlytwo-wayinteractionthatwassignificantwasbetweenageand
word-type(χ2 6.3,p<0.05):thisresultcomesaboutbecause,asFig.2shows,thedifferenceinVTTbetweenht-wordsandt-wordswaslargerfor
1¼
olderthan for youngerspeakers.This age-dependent influenceonword-type was confirmed by multiplepairedcomparisonsusing alpha-adjusted
Tukey-testswhichshowedthatVTTwassignificantlylargerforolderthanforyoungerspeakersinht-words(z 4.7,p<0.001),butnotint-words.
¼
AsFig.3shows,closuredurationwasoveralllargerinht-wordsthanint-words;anditwaslargerforolderthanforyoungerWASspeakers.Sincea
mixedmodelwiththeclosuredurationasthedependentvariableandwiththesamefixedandrandomfactorsasfortheVTT-analysisaboveshowed
thatthethree-wayinteractionwasnotsignificant,itwasdroppedfromthemodel.Theupdatedmodelwithoutthisthree-waytermshowedasignificant
influenceonclosuredurationofage(χ2 13.1,p<0.01),variety(χ2 22.4,p<0.001),andword-type(χ2 38.1,p<0.001).Therewasalsoasignificant
3¼ 3¼ 3¼
interactionbetweenageandword-type(χ2 5.6,p<0.05)aswellasbetweenvarietyandword-type(χ2 14.0,p<0.001)butnotbetweenageand
1¼ 1¼
3InordertoassessthereliabilityoftheautomaticmeasurementsforVTTandVOTinht-words,wecomparedthesevalueswiththemanuallymeasureddataforpre-andpost-
aspirationthathadbeenobtainedforearlierversionsofthispaper.Inthemanualmeasurementstheonsetofpre-aspirationwasmarkedatthepointatwhichtheenergyofthesecondand
thirdformantsdecreasedclearly,togetherwiththeappearanceofaperiodicnoiseinthewaveform.Thepost-aspirationphaseextendedfromthereleaseofthestoptotheonsetofthefirst
periodic waveform. The mean difference between manually measured and automatically measured durations was 1.1ms (sd 13.9ms) for VTT (i.e. pre-aspiration), and 8.0ms
¼
(sd 5.5ms)forVOT(i.e.post-aspiration).ThedifferenceinVOTcameaboutbecauseinthemanualtechniquewetooktheonsetofobservableperiodicvoicingtobetheoffsetofpost-
¼
aspiration,whiletheautomaticprocedurewasbasedontheonsetofvoicing(therebypotentiallyincludingsomeaperiodic,low-amplitudeperiodswhichwerenotincludedmanually).Mixed
modelswithageandvarietyasfixedfactorsandwordandspeakerastherandomfactorswererunonthetoken-wisedifferencebetweentheautomaticandthemanualmeasuresforVOT
andVTT.Themodelsshowednoeffectofthefixedfactorsonthedependentvariable,whichsuggeststhatthemanualandtheautomaticmeasurementsperformednotdifferentlyneither
withinnorbetweenthegroups.
H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25 17
Table3
Meanvalues(greyshadowedcolumns)andstandarddeviationinmsofvoiceterminationtime(VTT),closuredurationandvoiceonsettime(VOT)foreachspeakergroup.
Category Variety
EastAndalusian WestAndalusian
Agegroup: Younger Older Younger Older
VVT(ms)
ht-Words 10.3 13.2 18.3 19.0 5.6 10.7 17.8 20.6
t-Words −10.0 22.2 −5.0 19.4 −11.6 17.5 −10.2 20.1
Closureduration(ms)
ht-Words 113.4 26.2 115.2 23.8 88.7 20.3 110.0 22.3
t-Words 80.4 17.1 81.0 18.5 68.9 16.9 81.1 17.7
VOT(ms)
ht-Words 35.8 14.0 20.4 8.1 55.2 17.5 26.8 10.3
t-Words 18.7 6.4 16.3 7.5 18.7 7.4 19.2 11.5
West Andalusia West Andalusia
ht-words t-words
40
20
0
-20
s)
m -40
n ( East Andalusia East Andalusia
o
ati ht-words t-words
ur
D 40
20
0
-20
-40
Older Younger Older Younger
Fig.2. Distributionofvoiceterminationtime(VVT)inht-wordsandint-wordsinolderandyoungerEastAndalusianspeakersandinolderandyoungerWestAndalusianspeakers.Eachboxplot
consistsofone(averaged)valueperspeakeronthismeasure.Therectanglesspantheinterquartilerangeandthedotinthecentreoftherectangleisthemedianofthedistribution.
West Andalusia West Andalusia
ht-words t-words
140
120
100
80
s) 60
m
n ( East Andalusia East Andalusia
o
ati ht-words t-words
ur
D 140
120
100
80
60
Older Younger Older Younger
Fig.3. DistributionoftheclosuredurationsinolderandyoungerEastandWestAndalusianspeakersinht-wordsandint-words.Eachboxplotconsistsofoneaveragedvalueperspeaker
onthismeasure.
18 H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25
West Andalusia West Andalusia
ht-words t-words
80
60
40
20
s)
m
n ( East Andalusia East Andalusia
atio ht-words t-words
ur 80
D
60
40
20
Older Younger Older Younger
Fig.4. Distributionofvoiceonsettime(VOT)inht-wordsandt-wordsinthefourspeakergroups.Eachboxplotconsistsofoneaveragedvalueperspeakeronthismeasure.
variety.PairedcomparisonsusingTukey-testsshowedthattheclosuredurationwassignificantlylargerinht-wordsthanint-wordsforallfourgroups
(olderEAS:z 10.0,p<0.001;youngerEAS:z 9.6,p<0.001;olderWAS:z 8.5,p<0.001;youngerWAS:z 6.0,p<0.001).Theyalsoshowedthat
¼ ¼ ¼ ¼
closuredurationinht-words(butnotint-words)wassmallerforyoungerWASspeakersthanfortheotherspeakergroups(olderWAS:z 3.2,p<0.05;
¼
youngerEAS:z 3.6,p<0.01;olderEAS:z 6.5,p<0.01).Thusthissecondsetofresultsshowsthat,whilealargerclosuredurationdistinguished
¼ ¼
ht-wordsfromt-wordsinallfourgroups,thedifferenceinclosuredurationbetweentheseword-typeswassmallerforyoungerWASspeakersthanit
wasfortheothergroups.ForyoungerWASspeakerstherewasatrend(althoughnotsignificant)toproduceashorterclosuredurationthanolder
speakersalsoint-words.
FinallyFig.4suggeststhatVOTwaslargerinyoungerthaninolderspeakersandthattheVOT-differencebetweenht-wordsandt-wordswas
largerforyoungerthanforolderspeakers.SincethemixedmodelwithVOTasthedependentvariableandwiththesamefixedandrandomfactorsas
beforeshowedsignificantthree-wayandtwo-wayinteractionsbetweenallcombinationsofthefixedfactors,multiplepairedcomparisonsusingalpha-
adjustedTukey-testswerecarriedout.TheseshowedthatVOTwassignificantlylargerinht-wordsthanint-wordsinallspeakergroupsexceptfor
olderEASspeakers(youngerEAS:z 8.9,p<0.001;olderWAS:z 4.3,p<0.001;youngerWAS:z 19.3,p<0.001).Theresultsofthemixedmodels
¼ ¼ ¼
alsoshowedthatVOTinht-words(butnotint-words)wassignificantlylargerforyoungerthanforolderspeakers(youngervs.olderEAS:z 4.8,
¼
p<0.001;youngervs.olderWAS:z 9.1,p<0.001)andlargerforyoungerWASthanforyoungerEASspeakers(z 6.4,p<0.001).Thusoverall,and
¼ ¼
compatiblywiththetrendsinFig.4,theresultsshowthatVOTwaslargerinht-wordsthanitwasint-wordsforallspeaker-groupsexceptforolderEAS
speakers; and that the VOT-difference between ht-words and t-words was (a) larger for younger than it was for older speakers and (b) larger for
youngerWASspeakersthanfortheotherthreegroups.
2.3. Discussion
The findings show that Andalusian speakers made use of VTT, closure duration, and VOT for distinguishing ht-words from t-words. t-words
showedmostlynegativeVVT,i.e.voicingextendedintotheclosure,whileht-wordsshowedpredominantlypositiveVVT,i.e.voicingceasedpriorto
theclosureonset. This finding of partiallyvoiced closuresin Spanish intervocalic stops is consistent with Torreira and Ernestus(2011) for Madrid
spontaneous speech, and with O'Neill (2010) for Andalusian Spanish. The idea that the closure may be long in Andalusian /s/+voiceless stop
sequencesisconsistentbothwiththeresultsfromrecentphoneticstudies(Gerfen,2002;Torreira,2007a,b)aswellaswithearlierstudiessuggesting
ageminatestopproductioninAndalusianSpanish/sp,st,sk/(Alther,1935;Alvar,1955;seeTorreira,2012forfurtherexamplesanddiscussionof
consonantlengtheninginWesternAndalusianSpanish);anditisalsoconsistentwithotherevidenceshowingthatpre-aspiratedstopsoftenseemto
beaccompaniedbysomeformofstrengtheningofthefollowingoralgestureinmanylanguages(Silverman,2003).
TherewasaneffectofageontheanalysedparameterssuchthatVTTwassmallerandVOTwaslargerforyoungerthanforolderspeakers.Tothe
extentthatdiachroniceffectscanbeinferredfromapparent-timedata(Bailey,Wikle,Tillery,&Sand,1991;Weinreich,Labov,&Herzog,1968),then
thisresultsuggeststhatthereisasoundchangeinprogressinAndalusianSpanishsuchthatpre-aspirationiswaningandpost-aspirationisbecoming
moredominantasacuefordistinguishingintervocalics-lenited/aspirated/st/fromintervocalic,singleton/t/.
Thereweretwomaininfluencesofvarietyonthispatternofresults:firstly,olderEASspeakersincontrasttotheotherthreespeakergroupsdidnot
useVOTtodistinguishht-wordsfromt-words;secondly,youngerWASspeakershadthesmallestclosuredurationandlargestVOTofallfourgroups.
Thefirstoftheseresults,combinedwiththefindingofalargerVOTinyoungerWASthaninyoungerEASspeakers,isconsistentwiththeideathat
thesoundchangehasprogressedtoagreaterextentintheWesternthanintheEasternvariety.Thesecondresultmaybeindicativeofafurther
innovationtothesoundchangeproducedbyyoungerWASspeakers:withtheprogressofthesoundchangebywhichpre-aspirationgiveswayto
post-aspiration,thedurationoftheclosurealsobeginstoshorten.4
4Asareviewernotes,thisfindinghastobeinterpretedwithcautionbecauseyoungerWASspeakerscomparedtoolderWASspeakersalsoshowedslightlyshorterclosuredurations
int-words.
H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25 19
If post-aspiration lengthening is accompanied by closure-shortening, then there should be evidence of a negative correlation between closure
durationandVOTinht-words,especiallyfortheyoungerWASgroup(whichhadthelargestVOT).Wetestedwhethertherewasanyevidenceforthis
in the next section. Another issue is whether there is compensatory lengthening, i.e. whether pre-aspiration shortening is correlated with closure
lengthening.WealsotestedtheideafromParrell(2012)thatpost-aspirationarisesasanincreasingtendencytoproducetheglottalopeningandthe
closureonsetinphase.Accordingtohismodel,post-aspirationarisesbecausetheoralclosureofaconstantdurationistimedtooccurearlierduring
theintervalofglottalopening.Ifthisisthecase,thenthereshouldbeanegativecorrelationbetweenVTTandVOT,thatis,alongerVOTshouldbe
accompaniedbyashorterVTT.
3. Therelativetimingofpre-aspiration,closure,andpost-aspiration
3.1. Method
Theanalysiswascarriedoutforalltokensofht-words(Table2).AmixedmodelwasusedtoestimatetheextenttowhichVOTcouldbepredicted
fromalinearcombinationofeitherclosuredurationorVTTwithvarietyandageasfixedfactorsandthespeakerandwordasrandomfactors.The
speakerwasenteredintothemodelinsuchawaytoadjustbothfortheinterceptandfortheslope.Thepurposeofdoingsowastobeabletotestnot
onlywhethertherewasanegativeassociationbetweenthenumericpredictor(VTTorclosureduration)andVOT,butalsotoexplorewhetherthesize
ofthiseffectdifferedacrossthefourspeakergroups.
3.2. Results
TheresultsinFig.5provideverylittleevidenceofaninverserelationshipbetweenVOTandVTTwithinanyofthespeaker-groups;noristhereany
suggestionthattherewasalargerinverserelationshipbetweentheseparametersforyoungervs.olderspeakers.IndeedtheR2valuesforthesedata
whichvarybetween0.0(youngerEAS)and0.05(olderEAS)suggestthattherewasnolinearrelationshipbetweentheseparameters.Amixedmodel
inwhichthedependentvariableVOTwaspredictedfromVTTcombinedwithageandvarietyasfixedfactorsandthespeakerandwordasrandom
factorsshowednoevidenceofanylinearrelationshipbetweenVTTandVOT(χ2 3.0,p 0.39).
3¼ ¼
WetheninvestigatedwhetheranyVTTorVOTchangeswereaccompaniedbychangesinclosureduration.Fig.6showsevidenceforanegative
relationshipbetweenVTTandclosuredurationamongtheolderEASspeakers,butmuchlesssofortheotherthreespeakergroups.Giventhata
mixedmodelwithVTTasthedependentvariable,closureduration,varietyandageasfixedfactorsandwordandspeakerasrandomfactorsshowed
a significant interaction between the fixed factors, we re-ran the mixed models separately per speaker group. These results confirmed the trend
observedinFig.6:therewasasignificantnegativecorrelationbetweenclosuredurationandVTTforolderEASspeakers(χ2 13.1,p<0.001),avery
1¼
weaknegativecorrelationforyoungerEASspeakers(χ2 4.5,p<0.05)andnosuchnegativecorrelationforWASspeakers.
1¼
TheresultsinFig.7showevidenceforanegativerelationshipbetweenVOTandclosureduration:R2variedbetween0.02(olderWAS)and0.32
(youngerWAS).TheresultsofamixedmodelinwhichVOTwaspredictedfromclosuredurationcombinedwiththesamefixedandrandomfactors
as before showed a significant association between the two acoustic parameters (χ2 35.0, p<0.001). We explored the group differences in this
3¼
associationbyderivingfromthemixedmodel48slopes(intheplaneofclosureduration×VOT),oneforeachspeaker:thatis,thereisoneslopeper
speakerderivedfromthelinearassociationbetweenclosuredurationandVOTcalculatedbythemixedmodel.
TheresultsinFig.8show,compatiblywiththedatainFig.7,thattheslopeswerenegativeforallfourgroupsi.e.thattherewasatendencyfor
largerVOTtobeassociatedwithsmallerclosuredurations.Fig.8alsoshowsthatthistrendwasingreaterevidencefortheyoungerthanfortheolder
speakersandtoalesserextentforEAScomparedwithWASspeakers.TheresultsofanANOVAwithslopeasthedependentvariable(the48values,
oneperspeaker,inFig.8)andwithindependentfactorsageandvarietyshowedasignificanteffectforbothfactors(age:F[1,44] 51.8,p<0.001;
¼
-50 0 50
West Andalusia West Andalusia
Older Younger
R2=0.03 R2=0.01 100
80
60
40
20
s)
m
East Andalusia East Andalusia
T ( Older Younger
O
V 100 R2=0.05 R2=0.00
80
60
40
20
-50 0 50
VTT (ms)
Fig.5. Scatterplotsofthedurationofpost-aspiration(VOT;y-axis)inht-wordsasafunctionofpre-aspirationduration(VVT;x-axis)forWest(row1)andEast(row2)Andalusianspeakers
andforolder(left)andyounger(right)speakers.
20 H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25
50 100 150
West Andalusia West Andalusia
Older Younger
R2=0.00 R2=0.01
50
0
-50
s)
m East Andalusia East Andalusia
T ( Older Younger
T
V R2=0.19 R2=0.01
50
0
-50
50 100 150
Closure duration (ms)
Fig.6. Scatterplotsofthedurationofpre-aspiration(VTT;y-axis)inht-wordsasafunctionofclosuredurationforWest(row1)andEast(row2)Andalusianspeakersandforolder(left)
andyounger(right)speakers.
50 100 150
West Andalusia West Andalusia
Older Younger
R2=0.02 R2=0.32 100
80
60
40
20
s)
m
East Andalusia East Andalusia
T ( Older Younger
O
V 100 R2=0.15 R2=0.30
80
60
40
20
50 100 150
Closure duration (ms)
Fig.7. Scatterplotsofthedurationofpost-aspiration(VOT;y-axis)inht-wordsasafunctionofclosureduration(x-axis)forWest(row1)andEast(row2)Andalusianspeakersandfor
older(left)andyounger(right)speakers.
East Andalusia West Andalusia
0.0
-0.1
e
p
o -0.2
Sl
-0.3
-0.4
Older Younger Older Younger
Fig.8. Speaker-specificslopesderivedafterfittingamixedmodeltothedatainFig.7forthefourspeakergroups.Eachboxplotconsistsofoneslopevalueperspeaker.
H.Ruch,J.Harrington/JournalofPhonetics45(2014)12–25 21
variety:F[1,44] 18.0,p<0.001)andnosignificantinteractionbetweenthesefactors.Thusthissecondsetofresultsshowsthattherewasanegative
¼
associationbetweenVOTandclosureduration;andthatthisnegativeassociationwasmoremarkedinyoungerthaninolderspeakers,andmore
markedforWesternthanforEasternAndalusianspeakers.
3.3. Discussion
The results have shown that there was a greater negative correlation between closure duration and the duration of post-aspiration in the Western
comparedwiththeEasternAndalusianvarietyandinyoungerthanolderspeakers:thisfindingisconsistentwithTorreira(2007b)andParrell(2012)who
alsofoundsynchronicevidenceforanassociationbetweenclosuredurationshorteningandpost-aspirationlengthening.Ourresultssuggestthatthesound
changeisaccompaniedbythedevelopmentofatradingrelationshipinwhichthegroupforwhichthesoundchangeismostadvanced,i.e.theyounger
speakers,producedwordswithanunderlying/st/sequenceeitherwithalongclosureandshortpost-aspirationorwithashortclosureandalongpost-
aspiration.OlderEasternAndalusianspeakersincontrastshowedanegativerelationshipbetweenVTTandclosureduration,i.e.compensatorylengthening
ofthesubsequentstopclosure.Takentogether,theresultssuggestthatclosuredurationmayco-varyeitherwithpre-orwithpost-aspirationduration.
Ontheotherhand,contrarytoParrell's(2012)modelbasedonsynchronicanalysesofratechangesinpastándola,thereisnoevidencefromthepresent
apparent-time study of a correlation between the shortening of pre-aspiration and the lengthening of post-aspiration. Our findings suggest that post-
aspirationlengtheningistoacertaindegreeindependentofpre-aspirationshortening,andthattheformertakesplacegraduallyratherthancategorically.
Asanalternativetoanexplanationforpost-aspirationlengtheningandpre-aspirationshorteningbasedonphysiologicaltimingrelationships,we
carriedoutaperceptionexperiment.Wetestedhowaslightlypost-aspiratedstopisperceivedinvarietiesofSpanishthataspirate/s/bycarryingout
aforced-choiceperceptionexperimentwithlistenersofArgentinianSpanish.Theaimwastoinvestigatehowpost-aspirationisparsedbylistenersof
aSpanishvarietywithpre-,butwithoutpost-aspiration.Thegeneralhypothesistobetestedwasthatinacontinuumwithaslightlypost-aspiratedstop
(i.e.alongerVOT),listenersaremoreinclinedtoperceive/pasta/thaninacontinuumwithashortVOTbecausepost-aspirationisparsedperceptually
withpre-aspirationandthereforeassociatedwiththesameunderlyingphonological/st/.
4. Theinfluenceofincreasingpost-aspirationontheperceptionofpre-aspiration
Wesynthesizedtwocontinuabetween/pasta/and/pata/inwhichpre-aspirationwasshortenedinninesteps;onecontinuumwassynthesizedwith
aslightlypost-aspiratedstop,theotheronewithatypicalVOTforSpanishof12ms.ThereasonforcarryingoutthetestwithlistenersofArgentinian
Spanishisthatwordswithmedial/st/areproducedwith/s/-lenitioninmostregionsofArgentina(AlezaIzquierdo&EnguitaUtrilla,2002;i.e.pastais
realizedas[pahta]);however,incontrasttoAndalusianSpanishthereisnoevidenceofasoundchangeinprogress(suchthatpre-aspirationisgiving
waytopost-aspiration)whichcoulditselfbiastheperceptualresponsestowards/pasta/(seeTorreira,2007aforacomparisonbetweenWAS,Buenos
AiresSpanish,andPuertoRicanSpanish).
TheaimofthisexperimentwastosimulateasituationsimilartotheoneinAndalusianSpanishattheinitiationofthesoundchange.Theideawas
totestwhetherthereisaperceptualbasistothesoundchangefrompre-aspirationtopost-aspiration.
4.1. Method
4.1.1. Syntheticstimuli
AtokenofpastaproducedbyayoungerWASmalespeakerwasselectedfromthecorpusdescribedinSection2.1.Theselectedtokenhadalong
VTT(57ms),aVOTofcomparableduration(45ms),andaclosuredurationof139ms.Sincethesecondvowelofthistokenwasweakanddevoiced
itwasreplacedbyastronger,fullyvoiced/a/takenfromthesecondvowelofa/pata/tokenproducedbythesamespeaker(thecutforthereplacement
wasmadeatV inFig.1).Subsequently,andinordertomakepre-andpost-aspirationdurationsmoresimilartothedurationsfoundintheproduction
2.i
dataoftheEASspeakers(Section2.2)andthedurationsfoundbyTorreira(2007a)forArgentinianSpanish,VOTwasshortenedto29ms,closure
durationto100ms,andVTTto34ms.ThiswasdonebyshorteningproportionallythewholeVOT(closure,orVTT)intervalusingPSOLAtechniques
andtheAkustykplugin(Plichta,2012)inPraat(Boersma&Weenink,2012).TheresultingtokenwithaVTTof34ms,aclosuredurationof100ms,
andaVOTof29msservedasthebase-wordfromwhichallotherstimuliwerederived.
Inordertocreatethelong-continuum,wereducedthisbase-word'sVTTinnineequalstepsfrom34msto0msusingAkustyk,creating10stimuliwhich
differedonlyinVTT(i.e.pre-aspirationduration).Theshort-continuumwasgeneratedbycopyingthe10stimuliofthelong-continuumandbysubstitutingthe
VOTintervalineverytokenbyashortenedVOTof12msattheV cutpointinFig.1.Throughthisprocedure,weobtainedtwoVTT-continuawhichdiffered
2.i
onlyintheVOTofthestoprelease(longvs.short).AsummaryofallstimuliusedintheperceptionexperimentisshowninTable4.
Table4
VTT,VOTandclosuredurationvalues(ms)ofthestimuliusedinthepasta/pata-perceptionexperiment.
Step Short-continuum Long-continuum
VTT Closureduration VOT VTT Closureduration VOT
0 0 0
1 5 5
2 12 12
3 16 16
4 19 100ms 12ms 19 100ms 29ms
5 22 22
6 25 25
7 29 29
8 32 32
9 34 34