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Tamil liquids: An investigation into the basis of the contrast among five liquids in a dialect of Tamil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Joyce McDonough  and
Keith Johnson
Joyce McDonough
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627-0416, USA, joyce@ling.rochester.edu
Keith Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University Oxley Hall, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA, kjohnson@ling.ohio-state.edu
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Abstract

The Brahmin dialect of Tamil (Dravidian) has an unusual inventory of five distinctive liquid sounds: plain and retroflex rhotics, and plain and retroflex laterals, and a fifth liquid which has been variously described as a rhotic, a lateral, a glide and/or a fricative. This paper investigates the articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual properties of these liquids, and, in particular, the fifth liquid. Electropalatography (EPG) and static palatography were used to examine the articulatory properties of the liquids, the acoustic properties of the liquids were examined, and we tested the intelligibility of the EPG recordings in a perception experiment. Our intent is to propose a classification for the fifth liquid based on these studies. The fifth liquid is classified as a retroflex central approximant, with characteristics that make it distinct from the other liquids along three dimensions of contrast: static ∼ dynamic, central ∼ lateral and retroflex ∼ non-retroflex.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 27 , Issue 1-2 , June 1997 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1997

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