Abstract
Examples of syllabic nasals in English abound in phonological research (e.g., Hammond, 1999; Harris, 1994; Wells, 1995), but there is little explicit discussion about the surrounding consonant environments that condition syllabic nasals. This study examines the production of potential word-final syllabic nasals in American English following preceding consonants including oral stops, glottal stops, fricatives, flap, and laterals. The data come from a laboratory study of read speech with speakers from New York and other regions, a corpus of read speech with speakers from the Pacific Northwest and Northern Cities, and a spontaneous telephone speech corpus. Acoustic analysis indicates that [n] is only prevalent after [?], with some extension to [d] or []. Variation in rates of [n] versus [ne] is found across the speakers in a group, not within individual speakers. An articulatory sketch to account for the prevalence of [n] after coronal and glottal stops is laid out. To link this realization to the presence of the [?] allophone in pre-syllabic nasal environment, previous analyses of acoustic enhancement proposed for glottally-reinforced [?] in coda position (e.g., Keyser & Stevens, 2006) are extended to the syllabic nasal case.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | A2 |
Journal | Laboratory Phonology |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Keywords
- Connected speech
- Flaps
- Glottal reinforcement
- Glottal stops
- Syllabic nasals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Podiatry
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Computer Science Applications