The aerodynamics of voiced stop closures

Abstract

AbstractExperimental data combining complementary measures based on the oral airflow signal is presented in this paper, exploring the view that European Portuguese voiced stops are produced in a similar fashion to Germanic languages. Four Portuguese speakers were recorded producing a corpus of nine isolated words with /b, d, ɡ/ in initial, medial and final word position, and the same nine words embedded in 39 different sentences. Slope of the stop release (SLP), voice onset time (VOT), release and stop durations and steady-state oral airflow amplitude characteristics preceding and following the stop were analysed. Differences between independent groups (three different places of articulation and two vowel contexts) and correlations between variables were studied; generalised linear mixed effects models were developed to study the effects of VOT, SLP and the factors place of articulation and vowel context on the mean oral airflow. A classification of stop’s voicing was automatically extracted. Both SLP (p = .013) and VOT (p = .014) were significantly different for the three places of articulation. Weak voicing was observed for 57% of the stops. It is hypothesised that the high percentages of weakly voiced stops are a consequence of passive voicing and that the feature of contrast in Portuguese is privative [spread glottis].