A crossdialectal acoustic study of the monophthongs and diphthongs of Welsh

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Author
Mayr, Robert
Davies, Hannah
Date
2011Type
Article
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISSN
0025-1003
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The Welsh language has a complex vowel inventory with up to thirteen monophthongs and
the same number of diphthongs. According to descriptive reports, systematic differences
are found between the two main varieties of Welsh, Northern and Southern Welsh (Ball &
Williams 2001, Jones 1984). However, few studies have attempted to verify these claims
instrumentally, and little is known about the acoustic properties of Welsh vowels.The present
study is the first systematic acoustic investigation of the monophthongs and diphthongs of
Northern and Southern Welsh and includes measurements of formant trajectory length and
spectral rate of change for the diphthongs (Fox & Jacewicz 2009).
The results largely confirm claims about contrastive vowel categories in Northern and
Southern Welsh. In contrast to auditory-based accounts, however, pairs of Northern Welsh
vowels were found to differ, not only in terms of duration, but also vowel quality. The
diphthongs, in turn, revealed interesting cross-dialectal differences in spectral dynamics
across their trajectories. The results have implications for notions of contrastivity in
languages with large vowel inventories.
Journal/conference proceeding
Journal of the International Phonetic Association;
Citation
Robert Mayr and Hannah Davies (2011). A crossdialectal acoustic study of the monophthongs and diphthongs of Welsh. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 41, pp 1-25
Description
Published by Cambridge University Press in Journal of the International Phonetic Association: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0025100310000290
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