Utman J A, Blumstein S E
Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912.
Phonetica. 1994;51(4):221-38. doi: 10.1159/000261978.
This study explored the extent to which the acoustic manifestation of a phonetic feature is influenced by the linguistic role that the feature plays in the sound inventory of the particular language. To this end, we investigated the acoustic property associated with the feature [strident] in the production of bilabial and labiodental fricatives in Ewe, and labiodental and alveolar fricatives in English, and explored whether the acoustic manifestation of the feature [strident] varied in the instantiation of [f] in Ewe and English. In Ewe, the feature [strident] plays a contrastive role distinguishing labiodental from bilabial fricatives, whereas in English the feature [strident] does not play a contrastive role. Results showed that a measure of turbulence noise was able to distinguish bilabial and labiodental fricatives in Ewe and labiodental and alveolar fricatives in English. Moreover, the range of values associated with defining the amplitude characteristics for [f] was similar in the two languages. Nevertheless, differences emerged in the acoustic fine structure of the noise amplitude for [f v] in the two languages, with the frequency distribution for the labiodental fricative in Ewe being skewed towards the high amplitude range relative to English. These results suggest that while the fundamental manifestation of the acoustic property is the same across languages, its instantiation may be influenced by the functional role that its associated feature plays in the language.
本研究探讨了语音特征的声学表现受该特征在特定语言的音系中所起语言作用影响的程度。为此，我们研究了与特征[尖锐音]相关的声学特性，该特征体现在埃维语双唇擦音和唇齿擦音的发音中，以及英语唇齿擦音和齿龈擦音的发音中，并探究了特征[尖锐音]的声学表现在埃维语和英语中[f]的具体实例中是否有所不同。在埃维语中，特征[尖锐音]起到区分唇齿擦音和双唇擦音的对比作用，而在英语中，特征[尖锐音]不具有对比作用。结果表明，湍流噪声的测量能够区分埃维语中的双唇擦音和唇齿擦音以及英语中的唇齿擦音和齿龈擦音。此外，两种语言中与定义[f]的振幅特征相关的值范围相似。然而，两种语言中[f v]的噪声振幅声学精细结构存在差异，相对于英语，埃维语中唇齿擦音的频率分布向高振幅范围倾斜。这些结果表明，虽然声学特性的基本表现在不同语言中是相同的，但其具体实例可能受其相关特征在语言中所起功能作用的影响。
