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Duration of Blackfoot /s/.

Duration of Blackfoot /s/. A comparison of assibilant, affricate, singleton, geminate and syllabic /s/ in Blackfoot. Donald Derrick, UBC Linguistics For: WSCLA 11, UBC, April, 2006. Introduction. Blackfoot is an Algonquian language primarily spoken in Alberta and Montana

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Duration of Blackfoot /s/.

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  1. Duration of Blackfoot /s/. A comparison of assibilant, affricate, singleton, geminate and syllabic /s/ in Blackfoot. Donald Derrick, UBC Linguistics For: WSCLA 11, UBC, April, 2006

  2. Introduction • Blackfoot is an Algonquian language primarily spoken in Alberta and Montana • Blackfoot consonant inventory includes /m, n, p, t, k, ts, ks, s/ in singleton and geminate contrasts.

  3. Introduction • Blackfoot has only the one sibilant: /s/ • Blackfoot /s/ appears in many contexts: • Assibilation • underlying /k/ or /t/ next to an /i/ and across morpheme boundaries “-” become /ks/ and /ts/ respectively (Frantz & Russel 1991, 1995, Armoskaite & Chávez-Peón, 2005) [staḁxtsɪtsi] staaht-itsi under-pant "underpant" (F&R 1995:232) (BB 06/02/09)

  4. Introduction • Affricates • /ks/ or /ts/ within a morpheme (Elfner, 2004) [ɪstːstsáːpikɪmː] isttsi-tsáápikimm pain-wire/string "barbed wire" (F&R 1995:97) (BB 06/02/01)

  5. Introduction • Singletons • does not alter underlying preceding vowel lengths (Frantz & Russel 1995) [niːsɪpːo] niis-kiipo four-ten "forty" (F&R, 1995:134) (BB 05/10/12)

  6. Introduction • Geminates • defined as an /s/ which shortens preceding long vowels or laxens preceding short vowels (Frantz & Russel 1995) [ɪsatɛsːi] i-sataisi VERB-offended "become offended!" (F&R 1995:204) (BB 06/02/01)

  7. Introduction • Syllabic /s/ • defined as elng /s/ preceded by a consonant (Derrick, 2006) [ʔómʔḁksːksːiːnaː] omahk-sskssiinaa biɡ-insect "big insect” (F&R 1995:86) (BB 05/11/29)

  8. Introduction • Super-long combinations • defined as spirantizations (affricates) followed by syllabic /s/ (Derrick, 2006) [ʔomʔḁkssːapiaʔtsɪs] omahk-i-ssapia'tsis big-VERB-telescope "big field glasses" (F&R 1995:85) (BB 06/03/16)

  9. Hypotheses • Blackfoot geminates /s/ and syllabic /s/ will be the same duration • Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer than singleton /s/ • Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be longer than Blackfoot affricate /s/ • Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be longer than Blackfoot assibilant /s/ • All Blackfoot /s/’s will be longer when adjacent to vowels than when adjacent to consonants.

  10. Experiment • Blackfoot data involving /s/ in all the contexts listed was recorded and /s/ durations were measured in order to test the above 5 hypotheses:

  11. Methods - participant • One participant (Beatrice Bullshields) provided citation form words containing Blackfoot assibilations, affricates, singletons, geminates, syllabic /s/’s and super-long /s/’s. • A minimum of 3 tokens from 6 words for 18 measurements was elicited for each form (except ksV - 14 only)

  12. Methods - stimuli • Forms included: CsssV, CssC, CssV, VssC, CssC, VsV, VsC, tsV, tsC, t-V, ksV, ksC, k-V • C = Consonant • V = Vowel • sss = affricate + syllabic /s/ • ss = geminate or syllabic /s/ • s = singleton s • s = affricate • - = assibilation/morpheme boundary

  13. Methods - recording • Recordings were completed using a Marantz 660 solid-state recorder with a countryman (phantom power) wired lapel microphone. • Measurements were recorded using text tiers on PRAAT 4.4.0.7 for Mac • Data was compiled in Excel 2004 for Mac • Statistics were analyzed using JMP IN 5.1 for Mac

  14. Results - by type • All categories significantly different F(5,252) 123, P < 0.0001 • Each category is statistically different from each other P < 0.005

  15. Results - by Vowel Adjacency • Vowel adjacency to either edge of a long /s/ correlates to greater duration • Duration of a geminate /s/ followed by a consonant is similar to a syllabic /s/ followed by a vowel • Duration of a consonant bounded syllabic /s/ similar to vowel bounded singleton /s/ • Vowel bounded geminates are much longer than vowel bounded singletons

  16. Results - by Vowel Adjacency Singleton • Singleton /s/ in onset position is 100% longer than singleton /s/ in coda • Affricate /s/ in onset position is 33% shorter than affricate /s/ in coda Both results are highly significant (P < 0.0001) Affricate

  17. Discussion - Hypothesis tests Hypothesis 1: Blackfoot geminates /s/ and syllabic /s/ will be the same duration • False - syllabic /s/ is on average 25% shorter than geminate /s/ • long /s/ is approximately 50 ms longer per edge adjacent to a vowel. Hypothesis 2: Blackfoot long /s/ will be longer than singleton /s/ • True - geminate /s/ is 100% longer than singleton /s/, just like other geminates in Blackfoot

  18. Discussion - Hypothesis tests Hypothesis 3: Blackfoot singleton /s/ will be longer than Blackfoot affricate /s/ • True, but not by much - Blackfoot singleton /s/ is about 25% longer than affricate /s/ • in onset position, the difference is much greater with affricate /s/ at mean 103 ms and singleton /s/ at mean 201 ms, or 100% longer. Hypothesis 4: Blackfoot affricate /s/ will be longer than Blackfoot assibilant /s/ • True, but again not by much - Blackfoot affricate /s/ is about 25% longer than assibilant /s/. • And, assibilant and affricate /s/ are similar lengths when in onset position.

  19. Discussion - Hypothesis test Hypothesis 5: All Blackfoot /s/’s will be longer when adjacent to vowels than when adjacent to consonants. • False, Blackfoot singleton and geminate /s/ are longer when adjacent to vowels, but affricates are shorter when adjacent to vowels • Slower energy changes on either side of /s/ sounds may correlate with longer durations:

  20. Discussion - Energy Change • /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, quickly into a consonant. • /s/ energy builds slower off of /t/ than /k/ onset. (comparisons to appear in proceedings.) • /s/ energy decreases slowly into a vowel, and vowel energy decreases into an /s/ • singleton /s/ is shorter and sometimes quieter than geminate /s/. • singleton /s/ does not reduce preceding vowels.

  21. Conclusion • Underlying morphophonology combined with vowel adjacency jointly predict average duration differences between geminate /s/, syllabic /s/, singleton /s/, and affricate & assibilant /s/ • With geminate and syllabic /s/, vowel adjacency effects are symmetrical • Assibilant and underlying affricate /s/ have statistically similar duration in onset position • More speakers and more natural speech must be analyzed to finalize these conclusions

  22. References Armoskaite, Solveiga and Chávez-Peón, Mario. (2005) "Assibilation in Blackfoot" LING 431/531 Field Methods, UBC Derrick, Donald (2005) “Blackfoot Geminates.” LING 531, Field Methods, UBC Derrick, Donald (2006) "Blackfoot phonotactics." NWLC 22, SFU, Burnaby, BC, Canada Emily Elfner (2004) The Role of Sonority in Blackfoot Phonotactics. Honours thesis, University of Calgary Frantz , Donald G. (1991) Blackfoot Grammar. University of Toronto Press Frantz, Donald G. & Norma Jean Russell. (1995) Blackfoot dictionary of stems, roots, and affixes (second edition). University of Toronto Pres Special thanks to Beatrice Bullshields who provided all the elicitations for any data marked (BB date). Frantz's dictionary provided source material for all such elicitations, but Beatrice Bullshields's productions are used in favor of any dictionary entries.

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