TY - JOUR

T1 - The acoustics of three-way lateral and nasal palatalisation contrasts in Scottish Gaelic

AU - Nance, Claire

AU - Kirkham, Sam

N1 - Copyright 2020 Acoustical Society of America. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Acoustical Society of America. The following article appeared in The acoustics of three-way lateral and nasal palatalisation contrasts in Scottish Gaelic The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 147, 2858 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000998 Claire Nance and Sam Kirkham and may be found at https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0000998

PY - 2020/5/1

Y1 - 2020/5/1

N2 - This paper presents an acoustic description of laterals and nasals in an endangered minority language, Scottish Gaelic (known as 'Gaelic'). Gaelic sonorants are reported to take part in a typologically unusual three-way palatalisation contrast. Here, we consider the acoustic evidence for this contrast, comparing lateral and nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-final position. Previous acoustic work has considered lateral consonants, but nasals are much less well-described. We report an acoustic analysis of twelve Gaelic-dominant speakers resident in a traditionally Gaelic- speaking community. We quantify sonorant quality via measurements of F2-F1 and F3- F2 and observation of the whole spectrum. Additionally, we quantify the extensive devoicing in word-final laterals that has not been previously reported. Mixed-effects regression modelling suggests robust three-way acoustic differences in lateral consonants in all relevant vowel contexts. Nasal consonants, however, display lesser evidence of the three-way contrast in formant values and across the spectrum. We discuss potential reasons for lesser evidence of contrast in the nasal system, including the nature of nasal acoustics, evidence from historical changes, and comparison to other Goidelic dialects. In doing so, we contribute to accounts of the acoustics of the Celtic languages, and to typologies of contrastive palatalisation in the world's languages.

AB - This paper presents an acoustic description of laterals and nasals in an endangered minority language, Scottish Gaelic (known as 'Gaelic'). Gaelic sonorants are reported to take part in a typologically unusual three-way palatalisation contrast. Here, we consider the acoustic evidence for this contrast, comparing lateral and nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-final position. Previous acoustic work has considered lateral consonants, but nasals are much less well-described. We report an acoustic analysis of twelve Gaelic-dominant speakers resident in a traditionally Gaelic- speaking community. We quantify sonorant quality via measurements of F2-F1 and F3- F2 and observation of the whole spectrum. Additionally, we quantify the extensive devoicing in word-final laterals that has not been previously reported. Mixed-effects regression modelling suggests robust three-way acoustic differences in lateral consonants in all relevant vowel contexts. Nasal consonants, however, display lesser evidence of the three-way contrast in formant values and across the spectrum. We discuss potential reasons for lesser evidence of contrast in the nasal system, including the nature of nasal acoustics, evidence from historical changes, and comparison to other Goidelic dialects. In doing so, we contribute to accounts of the acoustics of the Celtic languages, and to typologies of contrastive palatalisation in the world's languages.

U2 - 10.1121/10.0000998

DO - 10.1121/10.0000998

M3 - Journal article

VL - 147

SP - 2858

EP - 2872

JO - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

JF - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

SN - 0001-4966

IS - 4

ER -