Witsuwit’en phonetics and phonology

LING 200

Spring 2006

Announcements and reminders

Witsuwit’en• apx. 180 speakers• a dialect of the

Witsuwit’en-Babine language

• Athabaskan family

•variant spellings: Athapaskan, Athabascan, Athapascan

•about 37 lgs in this family

•estimated time-depth: 2500 years

Athabaskan family

Tlingit

Eyak

Witsuwit’en

Navajo

Tsek’ene

Na-Dene Tlingit Proto-Athabaskan-Eyak Eyak Proto-Athabaskan

CAY S.AK Tset CBC PCA NW Can Sar Apachean

Deg Xinag Witsuwit’en Tsek’ene

CAY = Central Alaska-Yukon; S.AK = S. Alaska; Tset = Tsetsaut, CBC = Central BC, PCA = Pacific Coast Athabaskan; NW Can = NW Canada; Sar = Sarcee

Some Witsuwit’en

speakers

Mabel Forsythe

Lillian Morris, Peter John

A Witsuwit’en text

• Lillian and Mabel talking together

– 2:39 conversation

– recorded 1997

– some background noise

– what unfamiliar sounds do you hear?

Glottal stop []

uh-oh

Hawai’i

button

important

[o]

[hwaji]

[bn]

[mprnt]

stop made at the glottis: vocal cords brought together so no air can pass through the glottis

[] in Witsuwit’en

• [pe] ‘dried fish’

• [en] ‘he, she’

• [sompi] ‘no one’

• [c’teni] ‘legend’

Some Witsuwit’en soundsEjective stops and affricates: transcribed [C’]

How to make a (canonical) velar ejective:

0. Make a velar stop.

Make a glottal stop.

Time (s)0 0.898937

-0.3981

0.2645

0

Ejective affricates• [ts’] = ejective alveolar affricate

– [pts’q] ‘his little finger’• Compare [ts] = voiceless alveolar affricate

– [ptsq] ‘his outer ear’• Waveforms: (waveform = acoustic graph of energy x time)

Time (s)0 0.785312

-0.3981

0.3173

0

[p t s ’ q] [p t s q]

Ejective stops

• [t’] = ejective alveolar stop

– [nt’q] ‘your collarbone’

• Compare [t] = voiceless alveolar stop

– [ntq] ‘up’

Time (s)0 0.939937

-0.3981

0.2634

0

Time (s)0 0.907

-0.3981

0.282

0

[n t ’ q] [n t q]

Uvular place of articulation

Uvular place of articulation•[q] = voiceless uvular stop

–[qis] ‘Chinook salmon’

–[q ‘rabbit’

–[ntq] ‘up’

•[qh] = voiceless aspirated uvular stop

–[qh] ‘footwear’

•[q’] = voiceless uvular ejective (stop)

–[q’] ‘backwards’

•[] = voiceless uvular fricative

–[] ‘grease’

•[] = (voiced) uvular approximant

–[ptene] ‘he’s cooking’

Palatal place of articulation

Palatal place of articulation• [c] = voiceless palatal stop

– [cs] ‘hook’

– [nece] ‘it healed’

– [wecths] ‘I’m not strong’

• [ch] = voiceless aspirated palatal stop

– [chs] ‘down feather’

• [c’] = palatal ejective (stop)

– [c’thj] ‘gun’

• [ç] = voiceless palatal fricative

– [lzthç] ‘knife’

– [nteç] ‘he’s dancing’

• [j] = (voiced) palatal glide

Labio-velar place of articulation

• [kw] = voiceless labio-velar stop

– [kwe] ‘bag’

• [kwh] = voiceless aspirated labio-velar stop

– [kwhn] ‘fire’

• [kw’] = labio-velar ejective (stop)

– [kw’is] (personal name)

– [kw’sl] ‘bead’

• [xw] = voiceless labio-velar fricative

– [xws] ‘thorn’

• [w] = (voiced) labio-velar glide

– [nws] ‘soapberry’

Labio-velar place of articulation

Lateral fricative and affricates• [l] = (voiced) lateral approximant

– [lzthç] ‘knife’

• [] = voiceless lateral fricative

– [jl] ‘it’s white; goat (lit. ‘that which is white’)’

• [t] = voiceless lateral affricate

– [stet] ‘it’s licking me’

• [th] = voiceless aspirated lateral affricate

– [ncths] ‘I’m kneading it’

• [t’] = ejective lateral affricate

– [st’et] ‘he farted’

Witsuwit’en consonant chartlabial alveolar palatal labio-velar uvular glottal

stops p p’ t th t’ c ch c’ kw kwh kw’ q qh q’ affricates ts tsh ts’

lateral t th t’fricatives s z ç xw h

lateral nasals m n

approximants

j w

lateral l

Witsuwit’en vowels

front central back

unrounded unrounded rounded

high i umid higher-mid e o

lower-mid low æ

Further details about Witsuwit’en sounds

• [tz] ‘driftwood’• [thz] ‘cane’

• Why wasn’t [] listed in the vowel inventory for Witsuwit’en?

– Answer: [] is a predictable detail about the pronunciation of Witsuwit’en, and predictable information is usually omitted.

Broad vs. narrow transcription• A transcription can vary in the amount of

phonetic detail included– Relatively a lot of detail: narrow transcription

• e.g. [thz] ‘cane’ [tz] ‘driftwood’

– Relatively less detail: broad transcription

• e.g. [thz] ‘cane’ [tz] ‘driftwood’

• When should [] be included in a transcription of Witsuwit’en?

Languages contain predictable vs. unpredictable information

• Unpredictable, list-like information– this kind of information represented in

dictionary• Predictable, rule-like information

– e.g. in Witsuwit’en, schwa is pronounced as a lower-mid central vowel (in one context)

– this kind of information represented in grammar

a phonological rule

Broadest transcription

• Represents only unpredictable information

• Phonemic representation: /thz/phonological rules e.g. lower vowel phonetic representation [thz]

• Phonemes: the elements of a phonemic representation (enclosed in slash brackets)

When to use broad vs. narrow transcription?

• Typically, transcription is as broad as possible

– Symbols in consonant, vowel charts are phonemes

• In Witsuwit’en, [] would be transcribed only in a phonetic study of vowel quality (e.g. Ch. 4 of Hargus (to appear))

// Lowering

In Witsuwit’en, [] is pronounced []

after voiceless aspirated stops, ejective stops, or voiceless fricatives.

context of phonological rule

Context for // Lowering

labial alveolar palatal labio-velar uvular

stops p’ th t’ ch c’ kwh kw’ qh q’ affricates tsh ts’ lateral th t’fricatives s ç xw h lateral

After any of:

Distribution of [], [] in Witsuwit’en • [] occurs after

• [] occurs after p’ th t’ ch c’ kwh kw’ qh q’

tsh ts’

th t’

s ç xw h

p t c kw q

ts

t

z

m n

l

j w

Distribution of [], [] in Witsuwit’en

All the places // can occur in Witsuwit’en t__

m__ th__

p__ __

l__ xw__

z__ __

s__

e.g. [tz], [mn], [pn], [plt], [pzz]

e.g. [thz], [z], [xws], [t], [ss]

Distribution of [], [] in Witsuwit’en

• The distribution of [] complements that of [].

• Or, [] and [] are in complementary distribution.

• Only the basic member of a set of sounds which are in complementary distribution is considered phonemic (appears in vowel chart, etc.).

Which of [], [] is more basic?

• Which of the contexts is “simpler”? e.g. reduces to natural class of sounds or single position within word– rule applies in simpler context

• (not easy to tell in this case from just the information provided so far; other facts suggest that [] is derived from //)

Summing up [], [] in Witsuwit’en

• these vowel phones in complementary distribution

• [] derived by lowering rule

• Post-script

– /o/ lowers to [] and /æ/ retracts to [] in the same context that // lowers to []

Inventory of Witsuwit’en vowel phones

front central back

unrounded unrounded rounded

high i umid higher-mid e o

lower-mid low æ

Sounds which are not in complementary distribution

• Contrast, i.e. occur in the same context– [] vs. [l]

• [] ‘dam’• [l] ‘conifer’

– [s] vs. [z]• [c’zs] ‘bag, case’• [c’zz] ‘hide, skin’

– [m] vs. [p]• [mn] ‘roof’• [pn] ‘lake’

Applied phonology

• The Witsuwit’en writing system represents the phonemes, not all of the phonetic sounds

– Designed by a missionary in the 70s for use on a typewriter

– Revised 1993 (by your professor)

Word list transcribed (broadly)

phonetic orthographic

‘driftwood’ [tz] <diz>

‘cane’ [thz] <tiz>

‘footwear’ [qh] <kë>

‘grease’ [] <khë>

‘straight up’ [ntq] <ndik>

‘your collarbone’ [nt’q] <nt’ik>

Summary• Phonetic transcription typically as

streamlined as possible

• Predictable, rule-governed details are omitted

• Distribution is a major clue as to predictability

• Languages differ in

– inventories of contrastive sounds

– rules for pronunciation of sounds