Distribution%20and%20Timing%20of%20Glottalized%20Nasals%20in%20Athabaskan

1
Distribution and Timing of Glottalized Nasals in
Athabaskan

• Sharon Hargus
• University of Washington
• February 11, 2005

2
Outline

• Background
• Distribution and timing of glottalization in
  Athabaskan
• Witsuwiten and Deg Xinag
• Distribution of glottalized nasals
• Timing of glottalized nasals
• Conclusions

3
Glottalized sonorants timing possibilities

• Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996 109 Laryngeal
  constriction can be centered at the oral
  closure or can occur at the beginning or the
  end of a nasal consonant
• Plauché 1998140 creaky voice and often full
  glottal closure preceding, simultaneous to, and
  following the sonorant are found as acoustic cues
  for glottalization of sonorants
• Kingston 1990 implies that glottalized
  sonorants vary much more in timing than
  glottalized stops

4
Glottalized sonorants timing preferences

• Silverman 199798 with glottalized nasals,
  leftward laryngealization is preferred to
  rightward laryngealization
• non-modally phonated sonorant consonants are
  realized with laryngeal gestures phased to the
  early portion of the supralaryngeal
  configuration. (p. 106)
• But Silverman was only discussing prevocalic
  glottalized nasals.

5
Glottalized sonorants distributional preferences

• V__
• Steriade 1999102 a preglottalized segmentwill
  depend for optimal identification of its
  laryngeal category ona preceding vowel or
  sonorant
• Blevins 200495 word-initial neutralization of
  sonorant pre-glottalization is common, while
  word-final neutralization of pre-glottalization
  is rare

6
Interaction of timing, distribution

• In Yowlumne (Newman 194415), glottalized
  sonorants can never appear initially in a word
  or in a syllable that follows a closed syllable.
• Steriade 1999 since glottalized sonorants are
  pre-glottalized, exclusively post-vocalic
  distribution lt timing
• Therefore, Licensing by Cue is more explanatory
  than Licensing by Prosody

7
Timing and distribution in Yowlumne

• Howe and Pulleyblank 2001 Steriades analysis
  is wrong on two counts
• Yowlumne glottalized sonorants not restricted to
  coda position
• Yowlumne glottalized sonorants are not always
  pre-glottalized (Plauché 1998)

8
Timing and distribution in Yowlumne
___ ___C ___V
V___ ?ama?axam and perhaps pumna? a full-blooded Indian coowoo work
postglottalized postglottalized preglottalized
9
Timing and distribution in Yowlumne

• In fact, distribution determines timing
• If postvocalic and
• prevocalic (onset), then preglottalized
• not prevocalic (coda), then postglottalized
• What about post-vocalic restriction?
• plausibly, the implicational relation between
  the feature of glottalisation and the postvocalic
  position isnon-arbitrary, grounded in but
  semi-independent from phonetic properties
  governing the production and perception of
  glottalisation. (Howe and Pulleyblank 200163)

10
Timing and distribution in Yowlumne

• Plauchés explanation for Vn? vs. ?nV
• optimize recoverability of the formant
  transitions into a following vowel (139)
• Cf. Steriade/Blevins
• V?n optimizes recoverability of the laryngeal
  contrast (so preferred over Vn?)

11
Interaction of timing, distribution
___ s
Kwakwala post-glottalized
Oowekyala post-glottalized
Coatlán-Loxicha Zapotec post-glottalized
Kashaya post-glottalized
Kutenai post-glottalized
Yowlumne post-glottalized
Smalgyax pre-glottalized
Montana Salish pre-glottalized
Lai pre-glottalized

• Languages surveyed in Howe and Pulleyblank 2001
• Cross-linguistically, timing is semi- independent
  of distribution

12
Interaction of timing, distribution
s__V
Kwakwala pre-glottalized
Smalgyax pre-glottalized
Montana Salish pre-glottalized
Lai pre-glottalized
Nuu-chah-nulth pre-glottalized
Yowlumne pre-glottalized

• There is a correlation between syllabic position
  and the patterns of glottal timing (Howe and
  Pulleyblank 200176)
• Some timing lt distribution

13
Theoretical implications

• If timing determines distribution
• phonology is phonetically motivated
• supports Integrated model (no phonology-phonetics
  interface, no phonetic component of grammar)
• If timing independent of distribution
• phonology separate from, mapped to phonetics
• supports Modular model

14
Outline

• Background
• Distribution and timing of glottalization in
  Athabaskan
• Witsuwiten and Deg Xinag
• Distribution of glottalized nasals
• Timing of glottalized nasals
• Conclusions

15
Distribution of glottalization in Athabaskan
(stem syllables)

• Proto-Athabaskan, Ahtna, Hupa
• ejectives pre-vocalic, post-vocalic
• glottalized sonorants post-vocalic
• Denaina
• ejectives pre-vocalic, post-vocalic
• Deg Xinag, Gwichin, Han, N. Tutchone, S.
  Tutchone, Tanacross, Kaska, Tagish, Tahltan,
  Witsuwiten
• ejectives pre-vocalic
• glottalized sonorants post-vocalic
• Sekani, Chilcotin, Dene Su?ine, Dogrib, Slave,
  Tsuutina, Navajo
• ejectives pre-vocalic

16
Four types of Athabaskan languages
PA-type Denaina Deg Xinag-type Sek-type
TV ? ? ? ?
VT ? ?
RV
VR ? ?
Maddieson 1984 if a language has any
laryngealized sonorants it also has glottalic or
laryngealized stops. 19/20 95.0
17
Reflexes of T, R
PA reconstructions from Leer 1987 V full
vowel, v reduced vowel
PA Denaina Deg Xinag Sekani
TV/v ts?n bone ts?n -tT?n -ts?nè?
VT -w?t belly -v?t -v?t -b??t
vT ?ut scab ?it ?et ?ut
VR -tan leaf -tun -ton -tò??
vR q?n fire q?n q?n k??n
18
Timing of T in Athabaskan

• TV consistently post-glottalized (many
  instrumental studies)
• VT in Ahtna (Siri Tuttle, p.c.),
  glottalization optional if present,
  pre-glottalized

19
Timing of R in Athabaskan

• In Proto-Athabaskan pre-?
• Kingston to appear
• contrastive laryngeal articulations in
  post-vocalic sonorants are often pronounced at
  the beginning of or before their oral
  constrictionIf the glottalic articulation were
  timed in this way relative to the oral
  constriction in glottalic sonorants in PA, i.e.
  if /VR/ were pronounced VR, then the
  glottalic articulation would already overlap with
  the preceding vowel. Not only would the vowel
  coarticulate enough with the sonorants glottalic
  articulation for that articulation to shift
  readily to the syllable nucleus, but the
  pronunciation of /VVR/ would be
  indistinguishable from that of /V?R/ and /V?R/,
  and these sequences could not contrast.

20
Timing of R in Athabaskan

• In Tututni (Golla 1976) post-glottalized
• In Hupa (Golla 1970, 1977 Gordon 1995) post-
  contrast with pre-
• an aspectual contrast between heavy and light
  stemsis signaled by differences in the timing of
  the creak relative to the sonorant...in light
  stems...root-final creaky voiced nasals realize
  their creak on the end of the nasal (i.e. as
  post-glottalized nasals) while, in heavy stems,
  the creak is realized at the beginning of the
  nasal (i.e. as pre-glottalized nasals) (Gordon
  1995 18 ff.)
• pre-glottalized sonorants underlyingly precede a
  vowel, while post-glottalized sonorants
  underlyingly precede a consonant or word
  boundary.

21
Deg Xinag
Witsuwiten
Map from Krauss (to appear)
22
Impressionistic auditory observation

• Deg Xinag glottalized nasals are pre-glottalized
• Witsuwiten glottalized nasals are
  post-glottalized

23
Research question

• Can the impression of post-glottalization in
  Witsuwiten, pre-glottalization in Deg Xinag be
  acoustically verified, preferably in a
  quantitative way?

24
Why would this be important to know?

• Basic research for the description of these
  languages
• Theories of role of phonetics in phonology rely
  crucially on such phonetic information

25
Outline

• Background
• Distribution and timing of glottalization in
  Athabaskan
• Witsuwiten and Deg Xinag
• Distribution of glottalized nasals
• Timing of glottalized nasals
• Conclusions

26
Witsuwiten nasals

• n, m
• t?n sheet of ice
• ??m chunk of ice
• n, m
• no nasal vowels

27
Witsuwiten glottalized nasals
from Hargus (to appear)
n ni??t?n hes working (not for wage)
nts?n downhill
c?qaq tsan apron
d?yin wild potato
b?len?en half of it
m ha?t?m its little
ha?tum its really little
28
Wit. n pre- or post-glottalized?

• n, m in Kari 1975, Lake Babine Band 1977
• n, m as /n?/, /m?/
• Other clusters allowed word-finally
• sq?y blood
• -t?w hop
• Some instances lt /n-?/ or /m-?/

29
Wit. glottalized nasals lt suffixation
to water b?to? -? possessive suffix
ts?l?m packed lunch b?ts?l?m his packed lunch
i??a hire her yi??a? she hired her -? perfective/ optative (durative)
yi??n he sees him yin??n he saw him
30
Further phonological evidence for
post-glottalization in Witsuwiten

• /n-n/ (nn)
• Degemination
• -ni human plural/inanimate
• n?n to the side
• n?ni people to the side
• Epenthesis
• Ny- n- second person singular possessive prefix
• uzi name, nyuzi? your name
• -le hand, nle ny?le your hand
• -nin face, ny?nin, nnin, nin your face
• Distribution of optional variants
• N- neutral directional prefix (optional)
• yen nyen across
• n?q, nn?q, n?n?q uphill

31
Witsuwiten n-n

• n-n does not degeminate or epenthesize
• ni??t?n hes working
• ni?westEnni bi h?b???dli disability pension
  (lit. those who do not work are taken care of
  with it)
• Suggestive of nn as /n?n/, not /?nn/

32
Deg Xinag nasals

• No nasal vowels
• Three-way place contrast m n N
• Three-way laryngeal contrast (final position)

33
Deg Xinag glottalized nasals
voiceless voiced glottalized
m -- d?mzeg d?m?eg spring/ summer rabbit vand?lz?m it goes fast
n con? rain eq con wet fog, misty rain ???con it rained
? ð?G??? it dried -loG?? fingernail -q?? husband
34
Evolution of final voicing distinction

• n? /n/, n /nV/
• possessed suffix -e/ (Leer to appear) gt
• -/ / V__ te water, -te/ water (psd.)
• vd / C__
• ?ek dog, -leg dog (psd.)
• d?c?n? coffin, -d?c?n coffin (psd.), stick,
  stem of woody plant

35
DX n pre- or post-glottalized?

• Some n lt /n-//
• -/ durative perfective/optative
• n?tl/anh Im looking at it
• na??tl/an I looked at it

36
Summary

• Witsuwiten, Deg Xinag
• both have final n, n contrast
• both have (morpho)phonological evidence for
  post-glottalization
• both contrast final n with medial /n, n/
• But Witsuwiten n post-glottalized, Deg Xinag
  n preglottalized?

37
Outline

• Background
• Distribution and timing of glottalization in
  Athabaskan
• Witsuwiten and Deg Xinag
• Distribution of glottalized nasals
• Timing of glottalized nasals
• Conclusions

38
Acoustic properties of n Columbian Salish
Columbian Salish /n?m?m?al?/ lukewarm (postglot
talized nasal)
strong, almost periodic, low frequency pulses
quite turbulent airflow
in both cases, the laryngealizationculminates
in a glottal stop
39
Acoustic properties of n Montana Salish
Montana Salish /sm?ú/ mare
could be regarded as preglottalized lt strong
glottal constriction at the beginning of the
nasal
complete glottal stop followed by a nasal with
what appears to be modal voice
nasal which is almost entirely creaky voiced
In both cases there is an epenthetic ?
separating the first two consonants in the
initial cluster.
40
Acoustic properties of n Hupa

• Gordon 1995 18 ff.
• Pre-glottalized
• V?n? glottalization is not realized as a
  complete glottal stop, but rather as creak on the
  end of the preceding vowel and on the beginning
  of the sonorant.
  or
• V?/n the preglottalized nasal may also be
  voiced...with the vowel preceding final nasal
  is glottalized. Full glottal closure is only
  achieved for a very brief period of time
  immediately prior to the beginning of the nasal.
  or
• V/n? the glottal closure is complete and the
  nasal following the glottal stop is voiceless
  or
• Vt often lose their glottal stop and instead
  have an oral release
• Post-glottalized nasals are typically quite
  short and abruptly truncated by the glottal stop.
  Glottalization also typically spills over onto
  the end of the nasal.

41
Acoustic properties of n Yowlumne

• Plauché 1998
• main cue creaky voice (20-100 ms.)
• V.RV apx. 50 ms., possibly overlapping with
  preceding vowel about 10 ms.
• VR. 20-80 ms 50-100 if word-final
• secondary cues
• bandwidth (narrower for R than R)
• amplitude (lower for R than R)

42
Acoustic properties of n (other languages)

• In other languages (Plauché 1998)
• lower pitch on R than R (e.g. Zapotec)
• shorter duration of R than R (Lai)
• shorter duration of V/__R vs. /__R (Lai)

43
Acoustic properties of n (other languages)

• There is obviously room for further
  language-specific variation in the way that these
  oral and laryngeal gestures are related to each
  other, but the documentation is not yet very
  extensive. (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996111)

44
Acoustic properties of n in Witsuwiten and
Deg Xinag

• Materials word list recordings of n made for
  study of effect of final glottalization on voice
  quality (some results for Witsuwiten in Hargus
  2005)
• Speakers
• 8 Witsuwiten (2 male, 6 female)
• 7 Deg Xinag (2 male, 5 female)
• 4-6 sets/speaker
• 4 repetitions/token

45
Sample sets

• Witsuwiten
• ye louse
• ye/ boy (vocative)
• nyen across
• yen bridge
• Deg Xinag
• v??a his sister-, brother-in-law
• v??a/ its grease
• v??on half of it
• d??on? its hairy, furry
• v?do?on his chest

46
Method

• Observation of n
• Witsuwiten 157 tokens
• Deg Xinag 173 tokens
• Developed criteria for different types of n
• Classification of each n according to type
• Number of types/speaker
• Number of speaker-types/language

47
Criteria for timing classification

• Pre-glottalized if
• laryngealization starts before or simultaneous
  with nasality
• or nasal C follows laryngealization
• Post-glottalized if laryngealization starts after
  nasality
• Difficulties
• variable realization of laryngealization
• determining onset of nasalization
• nasality on V
• widely spaced glottal pulses over n

48
Pre-glottalized n in Deg Xinag
g??ehon he ate (AJ)
49
Cf. /n in Deg Xinag
d?/ne he says (AJ)
50
Pre-glottalized n in Deg Xinag
g??ehon he ate (LH)
51
Cf. /n in Deg Xinag
d?/ne he says (LH)
52
Pre-glottalized n in Witsuwiten
yen bridge (MA)
53
Cf. /n in Witsuwiten
y?qa/ninzin he wanted it (MA)
54
Post-glottalized n in Deg Xinag
???c?on it rained (JD)
55
Cf. /n in Deg Xinag
d?/ne he says (JD)
56
Post-glottalized n in Witsuwiten
b?tsan its excrement (LM)
57
Cf. /n in Witsuwiten
c?qa/ninzin he wanted something, was
hunting/trapping (LM)
58
Results Deg Xinag
AJ ED HM JD KH LH RD
post- () 0 4 0 83 35 4 19
pre- () 100 96 100 17 65 96 81
total 25 24 24 24 23 26 27
59
Results Witsuwiten
AJ BM HM KN LM MA MF SM
post 100 25 70 95 100 18 100 96
pre 0 75 30 5 0 72 0 4
total 17 16 20 20 16 18 24 26
60
Witsuwiten vs. Deg Xinag n

• Witsuwiten post-glottalized (6/8 speakers)
• Deg Xinag pre-glottalized (6/7 speakers)

61
Why timing differences?

• lt Morphological differences? No.
• In both languages, some instances result from
  suffixation of /.
• lt Distribution differences? No.
• Witsuwiten post-, Deg Xinag pre- n both
  restricted to coda position
• lt Place contrasts?
• If place contrasts cued at formant transitions,
  then Vn preferred to Vn (Silverman, Plauche)
• No. Both languages contrast nasals of other
  places of articulation (but not many such
  contrasts).
• lt Differences in timing of nasality?
• Witsuwiten /Vn/ as VŒ/?
• Deg Xinag /Vn/ as V/n?

62
Some reflexes of Vn and Vn
Vn vn Vn vn
Aht Vn vn Vn vn
DX Vn? vn? Vn vn, Vn
ST, KS VŒ vn VŒ/ vn
Tg Vn, VŒ vn Vn, VŒ/ vn
Tc Vn, VŒ vn Vn, VŒ/ vn
Wit Vn vn Vn vn
Sek VŒ vn VŒ/ vn
Gal Vn Vn VŒ/ Vn
63
Glottalization timing differences

• lt nasality timing difference?
• VŒ/ preferred over VŒ/VŒ (Witsuwiten)
• V/n lt PA? (Deg Xinag)

64
Conclusions

• Timing does not follow from distribution
• Howe and Pulleyblank 2001 survey
• Witsuwiten vs. Deg Xinag coda n
• Language-specific phonetics
• But onset n exclusively pre-?

65
Conclusions

• Need to test perceptually based explanations for
  phonological phenomena such as Licensing by Cue
• What is the relative importance of
  laryngealization vs. place for correct
  identification/discrimination?

66
Acknowledgements

• Thanks to Witsuwiten and Deg Xinag speakers who
  participated in these studies.
• Witsuwiten Alfred Joseph, Helen Michell,
  Kathryn Naziel, Beatrice Morris, Lillian Morris,
  Margaret Austin, Mabel Forsythe, Stanley Morris
• Deg Xinag Alta Jerue, Edna Deacon, Hannah
  Maillelle, James Dementi, Katherine Hamilton,
  Lucy Hamilton, Ray Dutchman
• Thanks to National Science Foundation for funding
  for research on Deg Xinag (OPP 0137483)
• Thanks to RA Julia Miller for initial help with
  Deg Xinag sound files.