Fahimeh Khodaverdi; Golnaz Modarresi Ghavami; Mojtaba Monshizadeh
Abstract
This article accounts for the acoustic grounds of the diachronic lenition of Old Persian /k/ to [ʧ] and [z] in certain verbal (present tense) and nonverbal forms and to [x] in the past tense of the same verbs, in /V__ [a, e]/ and /V__[t]/ contexts respectively. In order to replicate the phonetic ...
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This article accounts for the acoustic grounds of the diachronic lenition of Old Persian /k/ to [ʧ] and [z] in certain verbal (present tense) and nonverbal forms and to [x] in the past tense of the same verbs, in /V__ [a, e]/ and /V__[t]/ contexts respectively. In order to replicate the phonetic context of these diachronic changes within the framework of laboratory phonology, present day Persian forms containing the same phonetic contexts were uttered twice by two male speakers of Persian and recorded and analyzed using the Praat software (version 5363). The results of the acoustic analysis of the recorded samples and Independent-Samples t-test indicated that [k] shows a high degree of fronting within the context of the stressed vowels [á, é]. At the same time, aspiration in intervocalic position motivates the spirantization/affrication of this consonant. Intervocalic fronted [c] and [ʧ] are acoustically similar to each other as well as to [ʃ] and [s]. The consonants [c] and [x] have certain common acoustic characteristics when they appear before [t]. Therefore, [c] is prone to be weakened and interpreted as a fricative/affricate in such contexts.
fahimeh hkodaverdi
Abstract
The present study was an investigation of glottal stop phonetic variants in different positions of the words in Tehrani verbal variety of Persian. Acoustic evidences indicate that the articulation of different variants of the consonant including glottal closure, creaky voice and vowel compensatory lengthening ...
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The present study was an investigation of glottal stop phonetic variants in different positions of the words in Tehrani verbal variety of Persian. Acoustic evidences indicate that the articulation of different variants of the consonant including glottal closure, creaky voice and vowel compensatory lengthening followed by its deletion or weakening, in their occurrence contexts in initial, middle and final position of the words, is in accordance with the laryngeal phonation continuum. Vocal folds in larynx get different states while pulmonic airstream passes through them. This, in turn, results in changes in glottis openness. With gradual changes in the degree of glottis openness, from a completely close to a mid-open and then to a totally open state, the phonetic manifestations of complete closure (voicelessness state), creaky voice, modal voice and possibly, breathy voice are appeared. The present study revealed that every one of the above-mentioned glottis figures corresponds to one of the allophones of glottal stop consonant.
