Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:10:09.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Voiceless nasal sounds in three Tibeto-Burman languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2018

Katia Chirkova ,
Patricia Basset  and
Angélique Amelot
Katia Chirkova
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, [email protected]
Patricia Basset
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Phonology and Phonetics, CNRS, Paris, [email protected]
Angélique Amelot
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Phonology and Phonetics, CNRS, Paris, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper focuses on two types of voiceless nasal sounds in Xumi, a Tibeto-Burman language: (i) the voiceless aspirated nasals // [] and // [], and (ii) the voiceless nasal glottal fricative []. We provide a synchronic description of these two types of sounds, and explore their similarities and differences. Xumi voiceless nasal consonants are described with reference to the voiceless nasal consonants // and // in Burmese and Kham Tibetan because Burmese voiceless nasals are the best described type of voiceless nasals, and are therefore used as a reference point for comparison; voiceless nasals in Kham Tibetan, which is in close contact with Xumi, represent a characteristic regional feature. The synchronic description is based on acoustic and aerodynamic measurements (the total duration of the target phonemes, the duration of the voiced period during the target phonemes, mean nasal and oral flow). Our study (i) contributes to a better understanding of voiceless nasals as a type of sound, (ii) provides a first-ever instrumental description (acoustic and aerodynamic) of the voiceless nasal glottal fricative [], as attested in a number of Tibeto-Burman languages of Southwest China, and (iii) suggests a possible phonetic basis for the observed dialectal and diachronic variation between voiceless nasals and [] in some Tibeto-Burman languages.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , April 2019 , pp. 1 - 32
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atshogs, Yeshes Vodgsal. 2018. Wotuo Washu (washul) Zangyu de yuyin tedian [Phonological characteristics of Washul Tibetan]. Ms., Nankai University, Tianjin, China.Google Scholar
Bhaskararao, Peri & Ladefoged, Peter. 1991. Two types of voiceless nasals. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2), 80–88.Google Scholar
Blankenship, Barbara. 1994. Phonetic structures of an endangered language: Khonoma Angami. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 95 (5), 2875–2876.Google Scholar
Blankenship, Barbara, Ladefoged, Peter, Bhaskararao, Peri & Chase, Nichumeno. 1993. Phonetic structures of Khonama Angami. Fieldwork studies of targeted languages (UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics) 84, 127–141.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David. 2014. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. http://www.praat.org/. Version 5.3.65.Google Scholar
Bradley, David. 1997. Tibeto-Burman languages and classification. In Bradley, David (ed.), Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas (Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics 14), 1–71. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Bradley, David. 2003. Lisu. In Thurgood, Graham & LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 222–235. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, David with Hope, Edward Reginald, Fish, James & Bradley, Maya. 2006. Southern Lisu dictionary (STEDT Monograph Series, No. 4). Berkeley, CA: Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project, Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia. 2016. Lizu (Ersu). In Thurgood, Graham & LaPolla, Randy (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 2nd edn., 823–839. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia & Chen, Yiya. 2013a. Illustrations of the IPA: Lizu. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1), 75–86.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia & Chen, Yiya. 2013b. Illustrations of the IPA: Xumi. Part 1: Lower Xumi, the variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (3), 363–379.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia, Chen, Yiya & Antolík, Tanja Kocjančic. 2013. Illustrations of the IPA: Xumi. Part 2: Upper Xumi, the variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (3), 381–396.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia & Duoding. 2013. Xue Zangyu / Bod skad slob sbyong 4: Muli Xumi fangyan [Learn Tibetan, vol. 4: The Xumi dialect of Muli]. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia & Handel, Zev. 2013. Diachronic developments of voiceless nasals in Ersu, Lizu, and related languages. Presented at the 46th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, 7–10 August. https://www.academia.edu/7637522/ (accessed 20 December 2017).Google Scholar
Dantsuji, Masatake. 1984. A study on voiceless nasals in Burmese. Studia Phonologica XVIII, 1–14.Google Scholar
Dantsuji, Masatake. 1986. An acoustic study on the distinction of place of articulation for voiceless nasals in Burmese. Studia Phonologica 20, 1–11.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A., Hyman, Larry M. & Ohala, John J. (eds.). 1975. Nasa'lfest: Papers from a Symposium on Nasals and Nasalization. Stanford, CA: Language Universals Project.Google Scholar
Jumian, Gesang. 1989. Phonological analysis of Batang Tibetan. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 18 (2–3), 331–358.Google Scholar
Jumian, Gesang & Yangjing, Gesang. 2002. Zangyu fangyan gailun / Bod kyi yul skad rnamb shad / An introduction to Tibetan dialects. Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Harrington, Jonathan. 1994. The contribution of the murmur and vowel to the place of articulation distinction in nasal consonants. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 96 (1), 19–32.Google Scholar
Harris, Thomas C. 2009. An acoustic and articulatory study of sonorant phonation in Sumi. Honours thesis, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Harris, Thomas C. [Tom]. 2010. Phonation in Sumi nasals. In Tabain, Marija, Fletcher, Janet, Grayden, David, Hajek, John & Butcher, Andrew (eds.), The Proceedings of the 13th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 14–16 December 2010, Melbourne, Australia, 22–25.Google Scholar
Huang, Bufan. 1987. Qiangyu yuyin yabian zhong phaichi biyin de qushi [Nasal devoicing in Qiangic languages]. Minzu Yuwen [Minority Languages of China] 5, 19–26.Google Scholar
Huang, Bufan & Wangmu, Renzeng. 1991. Shixingyu [The Shixing language]. In Qingxia, Dai, Bufan, Huang, Ailan, Fu, Wangmu, Rengzeng & Juhuang, Liu 刘菊黄 (eds.), Zang-Mianyu shiwu zhong / Fifteen Tibeto-Burman languages, 174–197. Beijing: Beijing Yanshan Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith, DiCanio, Christian & MacKenzie, Laurel. 2007. The acoustic and visual phonetic basis of place of articulation in excrescent nasals. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report, 529–561.Google Scholar
Kurowski, Kathleen & Blumstein, Sheila E.. 1987. Acoustic properties for place of articulation in nasal consonants. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 81 (6), 1917–1927.Google Scholar
Kurowski, Kathleen & Blumstein, Sheila E.. 1993. Acoustic properties for the perception of nasal consonants. In Huffman, Marie K. & Krakow, Rena A. (eds.), Nasals, nasalization, and the velum, 197–222. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter. 1971. Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Maddieson, Ian. 1996. The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Maddieson, Ian. 2009. Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [First published in 1984.]Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 1973. A grammar of Lahu. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 1975. Rhinoglottophilia: The mysterious connection between nasality and glottality. In , Ferguson et al. (eds.), 265–287.Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 2003. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Michaud, Alexis. 2006. Three extreme cases of neutralisation: Nasality, retroflexion and lip-rounding in Naxi. Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale 35 (1), 23–55.Google Scholar
Michaud, Alexis. 2008. Phonemic and tonal analysis of Yongning Na. Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale 37 (2), 159–196.Google Scholar
Narayan, Chandan R. 2008. The acoustic-perceptual salience of nasal place contrasts. Journal of Phonetics 36, 191–217.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. 1975. Phonetic explanations of nasal sound patterns. In Ferguson, et al. (eds.), 289–316.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. 1980. The application of phonological universals in speech pathology. In Lass, Norman J. (ed.), Speech and language: Advances in basic research and practice, vol. 3, 75–97. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. 1983. The origin of sound patterns in vocal tract constraints. In MacNeilage, Peter F. (ed.), The production of speech, 189–216. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. & Ohala, Manjari. 1993. The phonetics of nasal phonology: Theorems and data. In Huffman, Marie K. & Krakow, Rena A. (eds.), Nasals, nasalization, and the velum, 225–249. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. & Solé, Maria-Josep. 2010. Turbulence and phonology. In Fuchs, Susanne, Toda, Martine & Zygis, Marzena (eds.), Turbulent sounds: An interdisciplinary guide, 37–97. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Okell, John. 1969. A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shosted, Ryan K. 2006. The aeroacoustics of nasalized fricatives. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Shosted, Ryan K. 2007. Investigating the aerodynamics of nasalized fricatives. Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVI), 255–260. Saarbrucken: Universität des Saarlandes.Google Scholar
Teo, Amos. 2012. Illustrations of the IPA: Sumi (Sema). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42 (3), 365–373.Google Scholar
Teston, Bernard & Ghio, Alain. 2002. Caractéristiques de la dynamique d'un pneumotachographe pour l'étude de la production de la parole: Aspects acoustiques et aérodynamiques. Proceedings of the Journées d'Etude de la Parole (JEP’02), Nancy, France, 337–340.Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. The Tibetic languages and their classification. In Owen-Smith, Thomas & Hill, Nathan W. (eds.), Trans-Himalayan linguistics: Historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area, 105–129. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Warren, Donald W. & Dubois, Arthur B.. 1964. A pressure-flow technique for measuring velopharyngeal orifice area during continuous speech. Cleft Palate Journal 1, 52–71.Google Scholar
Watkins, Justin W. 2001. Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31 (2), 291–295.Google Scholar