Uncovering the acoustic vowel space of a previously undescribed language: The vowels of Nambo

Eri Kashima, Daniel Williams, Timothy Ellison, Dineke Schokkin, Paola Escudero

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    This study presents the first acoustic description of the vowel space of a Papuan language-Nambo, spoken in southern Papua New Guinea-based on duration and first and second formant measurements from 19 adult male and female speakers across three age groups (young, middle-aged, senior). Phonemically, Nambo has six full vowels /i, e, ae, A, o, u/ and a reduced vowel tentatively labeled /(sic)/. Unlike the full vowels, the quality of /(sic)/showed great variation: seniors' and young females' realizations tended to be more open and retracted than those by young males, while middle-aged speakers' productions fell between these two variants. (C) 2016 Acoustical Society of America
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)252-256pp
    JournalThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
    Volume139
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Uncovering the acoustic vowel space of a previously undescribed language: The vowels of Nambo'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this