1 Perceptual explanations of articulatory variability in the realisation of the nasal feature for the consonants. J. Vaissière

2 Perceptual explanations of articulatory variability in the realisation of the nasal feature for the consonants. Jacqueline Vaissière Laboratoire de Phonétique et de phonologie -UMR 7018, Paris

3 1) The nasal feature? Most of the languages use the feature [nasal] for contrasting consonants Only 20% of the languages use it also for contrasting the vowels (but often no real pairs, such as in French) Most of the nasal vowels emerge from contextual anticipatory nasalisation due to N in coda, followed and N-loss Easy articulatory, difficult acoustically, complex perceptually

4 The death of nasal consonant in coda and the birth of nasal vowels? Regressive vowel nasalisation Final nasal consonants are more likely to nasalize the preceding vowels –Ex « pan » in English But also « cama » first /a/ nasalized Final nasal consonants are more likeky to dissappear (N- loss) than initial consonants (nasal vowels) –Ex « panum » in Latin > pE in French Intervocalic nasal consonants may dissappear too –Ex portuguese Luna = Lua Solo = Só Some cases of spontaneous nasalisation..

5 the observed articulatory and aerodynamic inter-speakers and inter-languages differences between initial nasal consonants (/n/), and unreleased final consonants (/N/)? Perceptual ? Other known types of explanations for velum behavior in general –articulatory (for anticipation) –aerodynamic (for stops and fricatives) 2) goal of this communication? 2) Goal of this communication?

6 Does not deal directly with the vowels or with the place of articulation of the nasal consonants This paper does deal with the nasalisty feature, the perception of nasality and the differences between initial and final nasals Data from in a number of languages French and English (X-ray), Japanese, and others Based on the available litterature, work in my lab, my own work. 2) goal of this communication? 2) Goal of this communication?

7 3) the effect of the position of a consonant in a syllable in general

8 the effect of the position of a consonant in a syllable in general: The syllable as a unit? Unit of physiological organization? (Stetson, 1951) –no Coextensive with the temporal domain of coarticulation (Kozhenikov and Chistovichn 1965) ? –no Thoughs in the mvt pattern of one articulator (Gay, 1978)? –no Characteristics patterns of articulatory organisation (Krakow, 1989)? –yes, in careful speech at least Syllable organisation of phonological patterns (Ohala et Kawasaki, 1984) –yes 3) the effect of the position of a consonant in a syllable in general

9 Straka and Durand 1) stress 2) Position in syllable, word, syntagma the effect of the position of a consonant in a syllable in general

10 Sonorant in coda Sonorants « fused » with the preceding vowel –Becoming more vowel-like –/l/ > [u] (chevals > chevaux) –/r/ –Nasal consonant > nasal vowels or nasal glide or glide –Backing also for nasal (velar nasal)

11 4) what is well known about the nasality feature?

12 A lot of very nice studies Japanese (Fujimura, Sawashima, Honda, etc.) English (Cohn*, Krakow*, Ohala, Bell-Berti, … French (Benguerel, Amelot*; Rossato*, Delveaux*, Basset & al; Cohn*, Badin … Spanish (Solé …)

13 Which have shown the many different factors influencing the velum behavior The many different factors influencing the velum behavior

14 Many factors Syllable boundaries style Language influences production and perception Speaker’s strateegy South French Canadien French dialects Intrinsic velar height Nasal features first ! /a/ lower thet /i/ /p,t,k/ > sonorants Impedance extremely important /a/ less thet /i/ Around stops Coarticulatory nasalized phonologized in English Spontaneous/carefully Stress and effort Position in sentence

15 style Less than expectedMore than expected Basset & al, 2001 Nasalized /k/ Nasalized /v/ Anticipation attendue avant N Basset & al, 2001 No anticipation

16 Open velopharyngeal port is the unmarked case Natural « coda nasalisation » Position in sentence sentence

17 /atu/ sequence From the university of Strasbourg (France) Final position favors nasalisation Pause behave as a nasal consonant in French cV+pause = final nasalisation Less well known, wrongly ignored in current litterature

18 /atu/

19 /atu/

20 Maximum opening (before /a/!!!) /atu/

21 Jaw starts to rise Closing gesture starts At the vowel beginning !!! /atu/

22 /atu/ Vocal tract already half Closed (in the middle of the « acoustic » vowel !!!

23 Protrusion of the lip starts /atu/

24 /atu//atu/

25 Lip continue to round (in anticipation of /u/) /atu//atu/

26 Lip continue to protrude /atu//atu/

27 /atu//atu/

28 Lip continue to protruded, they are As protruded as for /u/ /atu/

29 /atu/

30 /atu/

31 Deprotrusion starts Velum lowers /atu/

32 /atu/

33 /atu/

34 Lips still very protruded Carry-over; velum low)

35 Natural final nasalisation You don’t hear it. You barely see it on spectrograms But it is there. in French mV + pause = the velum does not rise again Pause act as a nasal phoneme This may explain presence of N as a coda

36 But conflicting conclusions … Transitional because unspecified in English Cohn: airflow phonologized anticipatory nasalisation in English Malécot, Ohala, Vaissière, and others

37 Initial /n/Final /N/ V n VN Onset Release V

38 Partly due to different instrumentations In all cases, the nasal feature is realized by lowering the velum Connection oral and nasal cavities If enough acoustic coupling, the phoneme is perceived as nasalized or as a nasal vowel or consonant

39 Principal results A phoneme is perceived as nasal when there is enough coupling between the main VT and the nasal cavity Coupling necessary depends on the phoneme identity and on the speaker native language.

40 1) Velar height velum only down for the realisation of the nasal phonemes? –Yes, but sometimes down for oral low vowel Same height for all oral consonants? –No, lower for stops than sonorants, lower for low vowels than high vowels Same height for all nasal consonants? –No, ower for final consonants, than initial, –Yes, for /m/ and /n/ Few data because invasive? –X-ray, yes, but MRI, no

41 2) Nasal airflow 1. Nasal airflow is always a by-product of an open velopharyngeal port? No, positive airflow may be the result of a pumping effect No, Negative airflow is possible when velum goes down long the velo-phayrngeal wall No, glottal consonants No; cold 2) Nasal airflow proportionnal to VP opening No, impedance (/i/ > /a/)

42 3) Velopharyngeal port 1.The best! but, lateral opening of theVP port is possible (IRM)

43 4) Articulatory synthesis Rather easy Maeda’s model Vowels and consonants

44 5) acoustics Not too bad, but dangerous to infer the velum behavior from only acoustic data Consonants: /l/ has also zeros Vowels: –Zeros due to context

45 5) Perception If easy to create the sensation of nasality More difficult to do it in a well-motivated way Nasal tract very complicated Aerodynamics constraints difficult to model 1.Nasalisation of sonorants, fricatives and vowels may go unnoticed because no nasal counterparts (non-native contrasts) 2.For stops, corresponding nasal may be more easily heard 3.The listeners would be sensitive to the total nasalisation in VN# sequence (Beddor, 2007)

46 Is differences between initial and final consonants strickly physiologically necessary (production) ? No !

47 Initial and final Consonants Could behave the same way Anticipatory and carry-over are not strictly necessary

48 what differences between initial and final consonants generally observed ? Yes ! Why?

49 Lower velum for final than initial nasal a) Differences in velar height and VP opening

50 Also X-ray, X-ray microbeam system, IRM, French, Japanese, etc. Differences in velar height and VP opening

51 Krakow, English

52 b) Differences in coarticulatory patterns

53 More anticipation than carry-over More coarticulation when tautosyllabic but no blocking More anticipation when tautosyllabic (cvN)

54 what differences between initial and final consonants generally observed ? Some conflicts in the conclusion But I will concentrate on similarities

55 Variability observed same instrumentation same language (French) Variability beginning and middle of murmur in nV Maximum at /n/ release = the only instant where nasality is necessary Benguerel Ouvaroff Cohn

56 Maximum nasal airflow Minimal velum height Close for aerodynamic reason Perceptual requirement But masking A point of rendez-vous: The release of the nasal consonant If missed: no nasality perceived

57 demo Most of the nasal murmur in nV, or VnV or VnV is not necessary for /n/ to be perceived as nasal J’admets > Jeanne met Et demi > ennemi Maintenant > mainnant Nombre, number > nomme What counts perceptually is the release; only the release

58 So if the release perceptually counts for initial /n/ What happens when a non released final consonant to be perceived as a nasal? Observations: –Articulatory observation: minimum VH at VN boundary, that is at the N onset. A perceptual complication: If short and no anticipatory nasalisation of the vowel, masking and murmur not perceived 105

59 Maximum nasal airflow Minimal velum height Close for aerodynamic reason Perceptual requirement But masking

60 So if the release perceptually counts for initial /n/ What happens when a non released final consonant to be perceived as a nasal? Observations: –Articulatory observation: minimum VH at VN boundary, that is at the N onset. A perceptual complication: If short and no anticipatory nasalisation of the vowel, masking and murmur not perceived 105

61 What solution(s)? What to do the nasalisity of the coda to be perceived The French way: –Released it ! –Liaison –Enchaînement Make it long ! Vowel anticipatory nasalisation ! (Beddor, 2007: integration) Anticipatory nasalisation even in French

62 language Anticipatory nasalisation In languages With Even in languages With nasal vowels Cohn

63

64 VN/ + C Different behavior depending on the surrounding consonants N+stop: nasal release of the stop, maximum velar height If unvoiced stop: VP close at the beginning If fricative: maximum velar height at the middle

65 Maximum nasal airflow Minimal velum height Close for aerodynamic reason Perceptual requirement But masking

66 Conclusions?

67 1) Perceptual consideration nV, VnV, A long murmur is not necessary Not audible for most of its lenght Around the consonant release It is essential importance VN, VNC, Long murmur necessary If short, masked Anticipatory nasalisation as a compensation Integration of nasality over V and N (Benguerel, Beddor)

68 Recall … The same perceptual constraints for /k,g/ Perceptual necessity and not articulatory ease! F2

69 2) alignement Consonants: Onset of unvoiced stop is [- nasal] (of better VP close), aerodynamics Release of stops has to be |-nasal], perception, nasal counterparts Fricative: middle, variability at the edge Nasal vowels: middle and last part, perception

70 3) From phonetic to phonology Much advantage to phonetically divide the « phoneme » into three or four parts Onset, steady state, just before release, release, transition …

71 4) multi-instrumentation Necessary for the nasality feature

72 5) Integration of multiple considerations Release And duration And anticipatory phenomena Should be faced in once Because of perception

73 Merci!