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Articulatory mapping of Yoruba vowels: an ultrasound study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2013

Blake Allen ,
Douglas Pulleyblank  and
Ọládiípọ̀ Ajíbóyè
Blake Allen
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Douglas Pulleyblank
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Ọládiípọ̀ Ajíbóyè
Affiliation:
University of Lagos
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Abstract

This paper examines the articulation of harmonically distinct classes of vowels in Standard Yoruba. There has been considerable disagreement as to whether the distinction between [e o] and [∊ ɔ] is one of vowel height or tongue-root advancement/retraction. This paper reports on an ultrasound investigation of Yoruba vowels. Results are consistent with harmonic classes distinguished by a tongue-root advancement/retraction feature, not by vowel height. We also investigate the relation between articulations of the tongue root and its neutral position between utterances, the inter-speech posture (ISP). We find more variability in ISP-to-articulation mapping than previous studies, but our results are still partially compatible with a postulated correlation between phonologically ‘active’ feature values and articulatory displacement from ISP. Overall, our results support an analysis of Yoruba vowels in terms of a tongue-root feature, and provide insight into the mapping between phonetics and phonology.

Type
Articles
Information
Phonology , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 183 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

Thanks to Bryan Gick and members of the UBC phonology research group for comments on this work, as well as to three reviewers and an associate editor for extremely helpful feedback. Special thanks are due to the editors both for comments on the paper and for their work in helping prepare our graphics for publication. This research was supported by a Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Douglas Pulleyblank.

References

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