Rhotic contrasts in Arabana
Date
2019
Authors
Carne, Michael
Chen, Juqiang
Luk, Ellison
Strangways, Sydney
Stockigt, Clara
Mailhammer, Robert
Harvey, Mark
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Volume Title
Publisher
Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
Abstract
Arabana has a three-way rhotic phoneme contrast: /r/
(alveolar trill) vs /ɾ/ (alveolar tap) vs /ɻ/ (retroflex
continuant). The rhotic contrasts are prosodically
restricted in Arabana. The triple contrast only appears
following the tonic vowel, which is the first vowel. In
other onset positions /ɻ/ is contrastive, but there is no
/r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast. There is no contrast in coda
positions. We undertook the first-ever production
study of Arabana rhotics. Recorded audio materials
were independently coded in PRAAT by two trained
transcribers. We found the following allophony: /r/ [r,
ɾ, ɹ]; /ɾ/ [ɾ, ɹ], /ɻ/ [ɻ]. The /r/ vs /ɾ/ contrast is thus
negatively determined, /r/ permits [r] realizations, but
/ɾ/ does not. The commonest realization of both /r/
and /ɾ/ is [ɹ]. The phoneme in neutralized coda
position is /r/. The high degree of overlap in
realizations between /r/ and /ɾ/ accords with reported
perception difficulties.
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Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
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Conference paper
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2037-12-31
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