Abstract Tima has a typologically unusual 12-vowel advanced tongue root (ATR) harmony system, contrasting six [+ATR] vowels /i e ɨ ʌ o u/ with six [−ATR] vowels /ɪ ɛ ɘ a ɔ ʊ/. This harmony system provides a test case for generalisations about ATR systems: for example, that [−ATR] is less compatible with higher vowels; that [+ATR] is less compatible with lower vowels and that central vowels are incompatible with [ATR] systems. After showing that all vowels participate fully in ATR harmony, this article presents an acoustic study of the Tima ATR contrast. We show that /ʌ/, the [+ATR] counterpart of /a/, patterns as a mid vowel, and that duration and voice quality differences characterise Tima’s crowded vowel inventory. Though F1 is the primary individual correlate of the ATR contrast, as is true cross-linguistically, a number of measures support voice quality differences as well, as predicted by the Laryngeal Articulator Model account of ATR systems.

(1) Background: Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a variety known to differ in various ways from the mainstream, but to date very little phonetic analysis has been carried out. This study is a description of L1 Aboriginal English in southern Australia, aiming to comprehensively describe the acoustics of vowels, focusing in particular on vowels known to be undergoing change in Mainstream Australian English. Previous work has focused on static measures of F1/F2, and here we expand on this by adding duration analyses, as well as dynamic F1/F2 measures. (2) Methods: This paper uses acoustic-phonetic analyses to describe the vowels produced by speakers of Aboriginal Australian English from two communities in southern Australia (Mildura and Warrnambool). The focus is vowels undergoing change in the mainstream variety–the short vowels in KIT, DRESS, TRAP, STRUT, LOT, and the long vowel GOOSE; focusing on duration, and static and dynamic F1/F2. As part of this description, we analyse the data using the sociophonetic variables gender, region, and age, and also compare the Aboriginal Australian English vowels to those of Mainstream Australian English. (3) Results: On the whole, for duration, few sociophonetic differences were observed. For static F1/F2, we saw that L1 Aboriginal English vowel spaces tend to be similar to Mainstream Australian English but can be analysed as more conservative (having undergone less change) as has also been observed for L2 Aboriginal English, in particular for KIT, DRESS, and TRAP. The Aboriginal English speakers had a less peripheral vowel space than Mainstream Australian English speakers. Dynamic analyses also highlighted dialectal differences between Aboriginal and Mainstream Australian English speakers, with greater F1/F2 movement in the trajectories of vowels overall for AAE speakers, which was more evident for some vowels (TRAP, STRUT, LOT, and GOOSE). Regional differences in vowel quality between the two locations were minimal, and more evident in the dynamic analyses. (4) Conclusions: This paper further highlights how Aboriginal Australian English is uniquely different from Mainstream Australian English with respect to certain vowel differences, and it also highlights some ways in which the varieties align. The differences, i.e., a more compressed vowel space, and greater F1/F2 movement in the trajectories of short vowels for AAE speakers, are specific ways that Aboriginal Australian English and Mainstream Australian English accents are different in these communities in the southern Australian state of Victoria.

The Eastern Polynesian language Tahitian spoken in French Polynesia, is described as having a simple phonological inventory with a single stop series: /p, t, ʔ/. Little is known about the acoustic properties of these consonants compared to well-resourced languages. Five female speakers of Tahitian produced multiple repetitions of tokens that varied in terms of stress location and prosodic phrase position. Acoustic analyses of stop duration and VOT, as well as voicing measures including voicing fraction and strength of excitation were conducted. As predicted, oral stops were significantly longer than glottal stops by 63 ms in word medial contexts with no effect of stress. VOT values were on average 21–26 ms (with /t/ marginally longer than /p/) confirming these are short lag stops (Cho and Ladefoged, 1999). Stress was marginally significant with shorter VOT values in stressed syllable onsets with no affect of prosodic position, unlike Hawaiian (Davidson and Parker Jones, 2022). Like Hawaiian, however, (Davidson, 2021), the glottal stop in Tahitian has gradient realizations although the majority are realised with full glottal closure with low voicing fraction and strength of excitation values. There are also clear effects of greater coarticulation in unstressed versus stressed syllables suggesting localised hyperarticulation in the latter context.

A number of researchers have posited a link between voice quality and consonant production (e.g., Keating and Esposito 2007). This work investigates the connection between the acoustics of voice quality (laryngeal behaviour) and consonant realization (supralaryngeal behaviour) in Australian Englishes. Focusing on speech produced by 52 Australian English speakers (both “mainstream” and Aboriginal English speakers), we show that in vowel-/t/ sequences “breathy” t-categories (e.g., affricates, fricatives) co-occur with breathier vowels (including those with pre-aspiration), while laryngealized t-categories (e.g., ejectives, glottal stops) co-occur with creakier vowels. Vowels preceeding breathy /t/ categories have stastistically significantly higher F0 and H1–H2 values compared to vowels preceding canonical /t/. Meanwhile, vowels preceding glottal t-categories generally have lower mean spectral tilt measures (H1–H2, H1–A1), signifying increased creakiness in the vowel prior to glottal variants. We also report on dynamic analyses of H1–A1, paying attention to acoustic features of the last 25% of the vowel where peaks/troughs occur depending on consonant quality. A relationship between the voice quality of the vowel and the (broad) consonant type is demonstrated, however, it is not one-to-one. Rather voice quality appears to assist in creating the right conditions for particular consonantal variants. Keating, P. and C. Esposito. (2007), “Linguistic voice quality”, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 105: 85-91.

This study is an acoustic investigation of voice quality in Australian English. The speech of 33 Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal English speakers) is compared to that of 28 Anglo Australians [Mainstream Australian English (MAE) speakers] from two rural locations in Victoria. Analysis of F0 and H1*-H2* reveals that pitch and voice quality differ significantly for male speakers according to dialect and for female speakers according to location. This study highlights previously undescribed phonetic and sociophonetic variability in voice quality in Australian English.

Qaqet is a non-Austronesian Baining language of Papua New Guinea, with a very small phoneme inventory of 16 consonants and four vowels, including the voiced stops /b d g/. These stops are often phonetically realized as prenasalized [(m)b (n)d (eta)g], and this feature is assumed to be a result of language contact with surrounding Oceanic languages. Our data consist of isolated word recordings from six female speakers of the language. Using a range of acoustic measures, we compare these phonetically prenasalized stops with non-prenasalized tokens of the same /b d g/ phonemes, and with the nasal phonemes proper /m n N/, as well as with the unaspirated voiceless stops /p t k/.& nbsp;In general we find that the nasal murmur of the phonetically prenasalized stop does not fully resemble the nasal murmur of the nasal consonant proper - instead the phonetically prenasalized stop patterns between the nasal consonant and the phonetically non-prenasalized voiced stop. However, there is a clear place effect, whereby the phonetically prenasalized velar stop patterns more closely with the nasal consonants, and the phonetically pre nasalized bilabial stop patterns more closely with the phonetically non-prenasalized voiced stops - with phonetically prenasalized alveolar in between the bilabial and the velar. This is particularly reflected in the distribution of energy below and above about 350 Hz. However, measures of voicing strength suggest that voicing for the velar is weaker across all manners of articulation, in line with the general difficulty of maintaining voicing at this place of articulation. We conclude that prenasalization of the voiced stops largely serves to maintain voicing for the velar place of articulation; and that if the feature of prenasalization was borrowed from neighbouring languages, it was to maintain voicing for long closure durations in a true voicing language, particularly at places of articulation where maintaining voicing is difficult. (c)& nbsp; 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Acoustic studies of Australian regional dialects have predominantly focused on the southern varieties of Australian English (AusE). This study presents formant frequency data for 10 female and 7 male Northern Queensland (NQ) speakers. Specifically the /e/ and /æ/ vowels in pre-lateral and pre-nasal conditions were analysed and compared with baseline /e/ and /æ/ values measured from controlled /hVd/ frames. The results reveal that for some speakers /e/ converges with /æ/ pre-laterally however for other speakers the two phonemes remain distinct. Pre-nasally the /e/ and /æ/ contrast is completely neutralised in the F1/F2 plane. However duration may serve as a contrastive cue to differentiate between two vowel categories, with /æ/ vowels tending to increase in duration pre-nasally.

Purpose: Infant vocal durations have been studied from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social, and linguistic. The resultant developmental profile across the first 6 months of life, however, is still far from clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the durational properties of infant vocalizations from the unique perspective of voice quality. By considering an infant's modal and nonmodal voice qualities, the developmental range of vocalizations produced by infants during the early months of life was captured. Method: Four Australian English-speaking infants were recorded for approximately 1 hr per week during the first 6 months of life. A total of 6,309 vocalizations were perceptually identified and labeled according to voice quality. The duration of each vocalization was subsequently measured. Results: A nonlinear curve was evident for the duration of all vocalizations combined. Duration increased significantly between Months 3 and 5. Modal voice was the only voice quality that displayed a linear increase in duration across the study. All other voice qualities displayed polynomial trends. Conclusions: Based on the current results, the inconsistent pattern of vocal duration development found previously can be reconciled when voice quality properties of vocalizations are taken into account. A nonlinear curve is evident when a broad corpus of infant vocalizations is used, whereas a narrow corpus containing predominantly modal vocalizations displays a linear trend. The results demonstrate the necessity of including nonmodal voice qualities in infant duration experiments so as to not overstate the linear nature of duration increases.

No clear picture exists of the f0 developmental pattern of typically developing infants. Methodological differences (e.g. type of vocalisations included for analysis) have been found to contribute to this. This paper approaches the f0 characteristics of infant vocalisations from the perspective of modal and non-modal voice qualities to more fully understand their role in the overall developmental contour. The results presented in this paper support the notion that the f0 of infant vocalisations provides insight into how an infant learns to exercise vocal control and that voice quality is a useful category through which to investigate these developments.

The duration of three infants' vocalisations were examined during a six-month longitudinal study. In contrast to most other infant research, this study included in its analysis all vocalisations including those deemed vegetative or those having nonmodal voice quality. All three infants produced vocalisations which decreased in duration in the initial months. However between the 3rd and 5th month a significant increase (p<0.001) in the duration of vocalisations was found (from mean 207ms to 431ms). When vocalisations were analysed using perceptual voice quality categories, all were found to have significant differences (p<0.05) in duration relative to modal voice. Nonmodal voice qualities showed initial decreases in duration before increasing in duration in later months. In contrast those vocalisations produced using modal voice showed a positive linear trend and had the greatest linear rate of change across the study. These findings highlight the importance of including a wide variety of infant vocalisations including those with nonmodal voice quality in infant linguistic developmental studies.

This paper examines the phonetic (consonant) inventory of four Australian infants during a six-month longitudinal study before the onset of babbling. By studying the developmental trends associated with the use of laryngeal consonants it shows that these articulations decrease in proportion across the course of the study as the infants gradually learn the sound patterns of Australian English and demonstrate the ability (cognitive and muscular co-ordination) to experiment with more oral articulations. In addition, other areas of laryngeal function such as voicing show developmental patterns that when combined with the consonant repertoire provide a broader picture of laryngeal use in infant vocalisations.

This paper presents fundamental frequency and frequency perturbation measure (jitter) data collected for one infant over a 23-week longitudinal study. It examines whether there are changes in the fundamental frequency over time, whether they are linked to laryngeal constriction and if there is evidence of instability of the fundamental frequency. Results suggest that changes are apparent in both the fundamental frequency's mean and standard deviation over the course of the study. In addition the percent jitter also fluctuates over time. However the role of laryngeal constriction in these changes is still not fully resolved.