Duration of Blackfoot /s/.

1
Duration of Blackfoot /s/.

• A comparison of assibilant, affricate, singleton,
  geminate and syllabic /s/ in Blackfoot.
• Donald Derrick, UBC Linguistics
• For WSCLA 11, UBC, April, 2006

2
Introduction

• Blackfoot is an Algonquian language primarily
  spoken in Alberta and Montana
• Blackfoot consonant inventory includes /m, n, p,
  t, k, ts, ks, s/ in singleton and geminate
  contrasts.

3
Introduction

• Blackfoot has only the one sibilant /s/
• Blackfoot /s/ appears in many contexts
• Assibilation
• underlying /k/ or /t/ next to an /i/ and across
  morpheme boundaries - become /ks/ and /ts/
  respectively (Frantz Russel 1991, 1995,
  Armoskaite Chávez-Peón, 2005)
• staa?xts?tsi staaht-itsi
• under-pant "underpant"
• (FR 1995232) (BB 06/02/09)

4
Introduction

• Affricates
• /ks/ or /ts/ within a morpheme (Elfner, 2004)
• ?st?stsa?pik?m? isttsi-tsaapikimm
• pain-wire/string "barbed wire"
• (FR 199597) (BB 06/02/01)

5
Introduction

• Singletons
• does not alter underlying preceding vowel lengths
  (Frantz Russel 1995)
• ni?s?p?o niis-kiipo
• four-ten "forty"
• (FR, 1995134) (BB 05/10/12)

6
Introduction

• Geminates
• defined as an /s/ which shortens preceding long
  vowels or laxens preceding short vowels (Frantz
  Russel 1995)
• ?sat?s?i i-sataisi
• VERB-offended "become offended!"
• (FR 1995204) (BB 06/02/01)

7
Introduction

• Syllabic /s/
• defined as elng /s/ preceded by a consonant
  (Derrick, 2006)
• ?om?a?ks?ks?i?na? omahk-sskssiinaa
• big-insect "big insect
• (FR 199586) (BB 05/11/29)

8
Introduction

• Super-long combinations
• defined as spirantizations (affricates) followed
  by syllabic /s/ (Derrick, 2006)
• ?om?a?kss?apia?ts?s omahk-i-ssapia'tsis
• big-VERB-telescope "big field glasses"
• (FR 199585) (BB 06/03/16)

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Hypotheses

1. Blackfoot geminates /s/ and syllabic /s/ will be
   the same duration
2. Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer than singleton
   /s/
3. Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be longer than
   Blackfoot affricate /s/
4. Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be longer than
   Blackfoot assibilant /s/
5. All Blackfoot /s/s will be longer when adjacent
   to vowels than when adjacent to consonants.

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Experiment

• Blackfoot data involving /s/ in all the contexts
  listed was recorded and /s/ durations were
  measured in order to test the above 5 hypotheses

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Methods - participant

• One participant (Beatrice Bullshields) provided
  citation form words containing Blackfoot
  assibilations, affricates, singletons, geminates,
  syllabic /s/s and super-long /s/s.
• A minimum of 3 tokens from 6 words for 18
  measurements was elicited for each form (except
  ksV - 14 only)

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Methods - stimuli

• Forms included CsssV, CssC, CssV, VssC, CssC,
  VsV, VsC, tsV, tsC, t-V, ksV, ksC, k-V
• C Consonant
• V Vowel
• sss affricate syllabic /s/
• ss geminate or syllabic /s/
• s singleton s
• s affricate
• - assibilation/morpheme boundary

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Methods - recording

• Recordings were completed using a Marantz 660
  solid-state recorder with a countryman (phantom
  power) wired lapel microphone.
• Measurements were recorded using text tiers on
  PRAAT 4.4.0.7 for Mac
• Data was compiled in Excel 2004 for Mac
• Statistics were analyzed using JMP IN 5.1 for Mac

14
Results - by type

• All categories significantly different
  F(5,252) 123, P lt 0.0001
• Each category is statistically different from
  each other P lt 0.005

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Results - by Vowel Adjacency

• Vowel adjacency to either edge of a long /s/
  correlates to greater duration
• Duration of a geminate /s/ followed by a
  consonant is similar to a syllabic /s/ followed
  by a vowel
• Duration of a consonant bounded syllabic /s/
  similar to vowel bounded singleton /s/
• Vowel bounded geminates are much longer than
  vowel bounded singletons

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Results - by Vowel Adjacency
Singleton
Both results are highly significant (P lt 0.0001)
Affricate

• Singleton /s/ in onset position is 100 longer
  than singleton /s/ in coda
• Affricate /s/ in onset position is 33 shorter
  than affricate /s/ in coda

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Discussion - Hypothesis tests

• Hypothesis 1 Blackfoot geminates /s/ and
  syllabic /s/ will be the same duration
• False - syllabic /s/ is on average 25 shorter
  than geminate /s/
• long /s/ is approximately 50 ms longer per edge
  adjacent to a vowel.
• Hypothesis 2 Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer
  than singleton /s/
• True - geminate /s/ is 100 longer than singleton
  /s/, just like other geminates in Blackfoot

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Discussion - Hypothesis tests

• Hypothesis 3 Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be
  longer than Blackfoot affricate /s/
• True, but not by much - Blackfoot singleton /s/
  is about 25 longer than affricate /s/
• in onset position, the difference is much greater
  with affricate /s/ at mean 103 ms and singleton
  /s/ at mean 201 ms, or 100 longer.
• Hypothesis 4 Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be
  longer than Blackfoot assibilant /s/
• True, but again not by much - Blackfoot affricate
  /s/ is about 25 longer than assibilant /s/.
• And, assibilant and affricate /s/ are similar
  lengths when in onset position.

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Discussion - Hypothesis test

• Hypothesis 5 All Blackfoot /s/s will be longer
  when adjacent to vowels than when adjacent to
  consonants.
• False, Blackfoot singleton and geminate /s/ are
  longer when adjacent to vowels, but affricates
  are shorter when adjacent to vowels
• Slower energy changes on either side of /s/
  sounds may correlate with longer durations

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Discussion - Energy Change

• /s/ energy builds slower off of /t/ than /k/
  onset. (comparisons to appear in proceedings.)

• /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, quickly
  into a consonant.

• /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, and
  vowel energy decreases into an /s/

• singleton /s/ is shorter and sometimes quieter
  than geminate /s/.
• singleton /s/ does not reduce preceding vowels.

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Conclusion

• Underlying morphophonology combined with vowel
  adjacency jointly predict average duration
  differences between geminate /s/, syllabic /s/,
  singleton /s/, and affricate assibilant /s/
• With geminate and syllabic /s/, vowel adjacency
  effects are symmetrical
• Assibilant and underlying affricate /s/ have
  statistically similar duration in onset position
• More speakers and more natural speech must be
  analyzed to finalize these conclusions

22
References

• Armoskaite, Solveiga and Chávez-Peón, Mario.
  (2005) "Assibilation in Blackfoot" LING 431/531
  Field Methods, UBC
• Derrick, Donald (2005) Blackfoot Geminates.
  LING 531, Field Methods, UBC
• Derrick, Donald (2006) "Blackfoot phonotactics."
  NWLC 22, SFU, Burnaby, BC, Canada
• Emily Elfner (2004) The Role of Sonority in
  Blackfoot Phonotactics. Honours thesis,
  University of Calgary
• Frantz , Donald G. (1991) Blackfoot Grammar.
  University of Toronto Press
• Frantz, Donald G. Norma Jean Russell. (1995)
  Blackfoot dictionary of stems, roots, and affixes
  (second edition). University of Toronto Pres
• Special thanks to Beatrice Bullshields who
  provided all the elicitations for any data marked
  (BB date). Frantz's dictionary provided source
  material for all such elicitations, but Beatrice
  Bullshields's productions are used in favor of
  any dictionary entries.