Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g7rbq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T14:48:04.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Articulatory mapping of Yoruba vowels: an ultrasound study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2013

Blake Allen ,
Douglas Pulleyblank  and
Ọládiípọ̀ Ajíbóyè
Blake Allen
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Douglas Pulleyblank
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Ọládiípọ̀ Ajíbóyè
Affiliation:
University of Lagos
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the articulation of harmonically distinct classes of vowels in Standard Yoruba. There has been considerable disagreement as to whether the distinction between [e o] and [∊ ɔ] is one of vowel height or tongue-root advancement/retraction. This paper reports on an ultrasound investigation of Yoruba vowels. Results are consistent with harmonic classes distinguished by a tongue-root advancement/retraction feature, not by vowel height. We also investigate the relation between articulations of the tongue root and its neutral position between utterances, the inter-speech posture (ISP). We find more variability in ISP-to-articulation mapping than previous studies, but our results are still partially compatible with a postulated correlation between phonologically ‘active’ feature values and articulatory displacement from ISP. Overall, our results support an analysis of Yoruba vowels in terms of a tongue-root feature, and provide insight into the mapping between phonetics and phonology.

Type
Articles
Information
Phonology , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 183 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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.)

Footnotes

*

Thanks to Bryan Gick and members of the UBC phonology research group for comments on this work, as well as to three reviewers and an associate editor for extremely helpful feedback. Special thanks are due to the editors both for comments on the paper and for their work in helping prepare our graphics for publication. This research was supported by a Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Douglas Pulleyblank.

References

REFERENCES

Abu-Bakari, Bawa (1977). The sound system of Dagbani. Diploma essay, Language Centre, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Akinkugbe, Olufẹmi Odutayọ (1978). A comparative phonology of Yoruba dialects: Iṣẹkiri, and Igala. PhD dissertation, University of Ibadan.Google Scholar
Archangeli, Diana (1984). Underspecification in Yawelmani phonology and morphology. PhD dissertation, MIT. Published 1988, New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Archangeli, Diana & Pulleyblank, Douglas (1989). Yoruba vowel harmony. LI 20. 173–217.Google Scholar
Archangeli, Diana & Pulleyblank, Douglas (1994). Grounded phonology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Avery, Peter & Rice, Keren (1989). Segment structure and coronal underspecification. Phonology 6. 179–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boersma, Paul (2001). Praat: a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot International 5. 341–345.Google Scholar
Calabrese, Andrea (1995). A constraint-based theory of phonological markedness and simplification procedures. LI 26. 373–463.Google Scholar
Capo, Hounkpati B. C. (1985). On the high non-expanded vowels in Yoruboid. Studies in African Linguistics 16. 103–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casali, Roderic F. (2002). Nawuri ATR harmony in typological perspective. Journal of West African Languages 29:1. 3–43.Google Scholar
Casali, Roderic F. (2003). [ATR] value asymmetries and underlying vowel inventory structure in Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan. Linguistic Typology 7. 307–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casali, Roderic F. (2008). ATR harmony in African languages. Language and Linguistics Compass 2. 496–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam & Halle, Morris (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Courtenay, Karen R. (1968). A generative phonology of Yoruba. PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Dakubu, M. E. Kropp (1997). Oti-Volta vowel harmony and Dagbani. Gur Papers/Cahiers Voltaïques 2. 81–88.Google Scholar
Dalton, Will (2011). An ultrasound imaging study of the tense–lax distinction in Canadian French vowels. Canadian Acoustics 39:3. 168–169.Google Scholar
Davidson, Lisa (2005). Addressing phonological questions with ultrasound. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 19. 619–633.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, Lisa (2006). Comparing tongue shapes from ultrasound imaging using smoothing spline analysis of variance. JASA 120. 407–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edmondson, Jerold A., Padayodi, Cécile M., Hassan, Zeki Majeed & Esling, John H. (2007). The laryngeal articulator: source and resonator. In Trouvain, Jürgen & Barry, William J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbrücken: Saarland University. 2065–2068.Google Scholar
Eijk, Jan van (1997). The Lillooet language: phonology, morphology, syntax. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Elugbe, Ben Odi (1984). Morphology of the gerund in Dẹgẹma and its reconstruction in Proto-Edoid. Studies in African Linguistics 15. 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elugbe, Ben Odi (1989). Comparative Edoid: phonology and lexicon. Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press.Google Scholar
Fọlarin, Antonia Y. (1987). Lexical phonology of Yoruba nouns and verbs. PhD dissertation, University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Fresco, Edward M. (1970). Topics in Yoruba dialect phonology. Studies in African Linguistics. Suppl. 1.Google Scholar
George, Isaac (1973). Vowel harmony: why so restricted in Yoruba? Research Notes from the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Ibadan 6. 171–188.Google Scholar
Gick, Bryan, Bird, Sonia & Wilson, Ian (2005). Techniques for field application of lingual ultrasound imaging. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 19. 503–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gick, Bryan, Pulleyblank, Douglas, Campbell, Fiona & Mutaka, Ngessimo (2006). Low vowels and transparency in Kinande vowel harmony. Phonology 23. 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gick, Bryan, Wilson, Ian, Koch, Karsten & Cook, Clare (2004). Language-specific articulatory settings: evidence from inter-utterance rest position. Phonetica 61. 220–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goad, Heather (1993). On the configuration of height features. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Guion, Susan G., Post, Mark W. & Payne, Doris L. (2004). Phonetic correlates of tongue root vowel contrasts in Maa. JPh 32. 517–542.Google Scholar
Hess, Susan (1992). Assimilatory effects in a vowel harmony system: an acoustic analysis of advanced tongue root in Akan. JPh 20. 475–492.Google Scholar
Honikman, Beatrice (1964). Articulatory settings. In Abercrombie, David, Fry, D. B., MacCarthy, P. A. D., Scott, N. C. & Trim, J. L. M. (eds.) In honour of Daniel Jones. London: Longmans. 73–84.Google Scholar
Hudu, Fusheini (2010). Dagbani tongue-root harmony: a formal account with ultrasound investigation. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Hudu, Fusheini, Miller, Amanda & Pulleyblank, Douglas (2009). Ultrasound imaging and theories of tongue root phenomena in African languages. In Austin, Peter K., Bond, Oliver, Charette, Monik, Nathan, David & Sells, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory. Vol. 2. London: SOAS. 153–163.Google Scholar
Jenner, Bryan (2001). Genealogies of articulatory settings: genealogies of an idea. Historiographia Linguistica 28. 121–141.Google Scholar
Kari, Ethelbert E. (1995). The structure of the Degema verb. MA thesis, University of Port Harcourt.Google Scholar
Kari, Ethelbert E. (1997). Degema. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Keyser, Samuel Jay & Stevens, Kenneth N. (2001). Enhancement revisited. In Kenstowicz, Michael J. (ed.) Ken Hale: a life in language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 271–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter (1968). A phonetic study of West African languages: an auditory-instrumental study. 2nd edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Maddieson, Ian (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford & Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Laver, John (1978). The concept of articulatory settings: an historical survey. Historiographia Linguistica 5. 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Min, Kambhamettu, Chandra & Stone, Maureen (2003). EdgeTrak: a program for band-edge extraction and its applications. Paper presented at the 6th IASTED International Conference on Computer Graphics and Imaging, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Lindau, Mona (1979). The feature expanded. JPh 7. 163–176.Google Scholar
Maddieson, Ian (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mielke, Jeff (2005). Ambivalence and ambiguity in laterals and nasals. Phonology 22. 169–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mielke, Jeff (2008). The emergence of distinctive features. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohanan, K. P., Archangeli, Diana & Pulleyblank, Douglas (2010). The emergence of Optimality Theory. In Uyechi, Linda & Wee, Lian-Hee (eds.) Reality exploration and discovery: pattern interaction in language and life. Stanford: CSLI. 143–158.Google Scholar
Namdaran, Nahal (2006). Retraction in St'át'imcets: an ultrasonic investigation. MA thesis, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Olawsky, Knut (1999). Aspects of Dagbani grammar: with special emphasis on phonology and morphology. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Orie, Ọlanikẹ Ọla (2001). An alignment-based account of vowel harmony in Ifẹ Yoruba. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 22. 117–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orie, Ọlanikẹ Ọla (2003). Two harmony theories and high vowel patterns in Ebira and Yoruba. The Linguistic Review 20. 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oyelaran, Ọlasope O. (1971). Yoruba phonology. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Oyelaran, Ọlasope O. (1973). Yoruba vowel co-occurrence restrictions. Studies in African Linguistics 4. 155–182.Google Scholar
Painter, Colin (1971). Vowel harmony in Anum. Phonetica 23. 239–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przezdziecki, Marek A. (2005). Vowel harmony and coarticulation in three dialects of Yoruba: phonetics determining phonology. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, Douglas (2006). Minimizing UG: constraints upon constraints. WCCFL 25. 15–39.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team (2012). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at http://www.r-project.org.Google Scholar
Remnant, Daphne E. (1990). Tongue root articulations: a case study of Lillooet. MA thesis, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Rose, Sharon (1996). Variable laryngeals and vowel lowering. Phonology 13. 73–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shahin, Kimary N. (2002). Postvelar harmony. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Stevens, Kenneth N., Keyser, Samuel Jay & Kawasaki, Haruko (1986). Toward a phonetic and phonological theory of redundant features. In Perkell, Joseph S. & Klatt, Dennis H. (eds.) Invariance and variability in speech processes. Hillsdale: Erlbaum. 426–449.Google Scholar
Stewart, John M. (1967). Tongue-root position in Akan vowel harmony. Phonetica 16. 185–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiede, Mark K. (1993). An MRI-based study of pharyngeal volume contrasts in Akan. Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research SR-113. 107–129.Google Scholar
Whalen, D. H., Iskarous, Khalil, Tiede, Mark K., Ostry, David J., Lehnert-LeHouillier, Heike, Vatikiotis-Bateson, Eric & Hailey, Donald S. (2005). The Haskins optically corrected ultrasound system (HOCUS). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48. 543–553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, Ian L. (2006). Articulatory settings of French and English monolingual and bilingual speakers. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar