Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Linguolabials

1987; Acoustical Society of America; Volume: 81; Issue: S1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1121/1.2024335

1520-9024

Ian Maddieson,

Linguistic Variation and Morphology

A number of Austronesian languages spoken in Vanuatu have a series of linguolabial consonants (i.e., stops, nasals, and fricatives produced by articulation of the tongue blade with the upper lip). This paper presents the first detailed study of the production and acoustic nature of linguolabials based on data from three of these languages. These sounds may be produced with varying degrees of retraction of the upper lip and protrusion of the tongue, but all involve a vocal tract configuration with a narrow cross-sectional area in the front region. In linguolabial continuants the second resonance of the vocal tract is higher than it is in labials, and the burst of the linguolabial stop has greater energy at high frequency than a labial stop. These segments thus have some similarities with dental segments. Linguolabials are perceptually difficult to distinguish from dental or labial sounds, depending on phonetic context. The occurrence of contrast between labials, linguolabials, and dentals in these languages indicates that quite subtle details in the spectrum must be adequate to signal differences in place of articulation. [Work sponsored by NSF.]